On Tue, 02 May 2006 13:02:01 -0400, JohnH wrote:

Could the poor be getting poorer because they don't want to work?

I realize that demonizing the enemy; in this case, the working poor,
is a tried and true tactic that works in most cases. Lets give some
of them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are not lazy
slobs who aren't willing to work.

Hell,
we've got 10-15 million (depending on who is talking) illegal aliens who
came here and found jobs.

And where did they come from? What are the working conditions, pay
scale, and health care issues in the countries they came from? Are
you suggesting workers in this country should have to compete on an
equal basis with the worst of the third world working conditions, just
because it happens to be in the best financial interest of large and
very wealthy US businesses? Can you really justify helping those
folks who make millions of dollars a year make even more millions,
when it hurts the working class of this country? Do you realize it's
the middle class that has made this country great, and special, and
the ideal of most of the world? Feeding the greed of the wealthy in
this country is a cause worthy of destroying what has made this
country what it is?


If they *are* the poor you refer to, then it's
their own damn fault, and their poverty is certainly skewing the statistic.

Yeah, it's their own damned fault they don't have billions of dollars
to funnel into the campaign funds of politicians so they can get
special privileges. It's their own damned fault they can't afford
decent health care because the health care lobbies have been able to
prevent health care reform in order to protect the massive profits.
It's their own damned fault the oil companies have a free hand to
write federal energy policy to protect their profits. It's their own
damned fault the environmental laws have been watered down to the
point of being useless in order to increase the profits of the
corporations. It's their own damned fault the federal reserve has
flooded the market with liquidity to the point of making our currency
almost worthless.

Do you have any values that benefit anyone beyond your immediate
family?