Conservatives, this is what poverty looks like.

In every thread about the poor on this site, arguments about how the people making minimum wage are uneducated and thus don't deserve to be paid more than a wage that keeps them in poverty.

Well, let me tell you a bit of my personal history.

My mother worked at a fairly good job when she was pregnant with me. She went in for an ultrasound one day, the tech found an abnormality, so they ordered an amniocentesis. Those tests came back that I had one of the two conditions I was born with, the second one was not discovered until after I was born. My mom's bosses fired her in her third trimester when they found out she was pregnant with a child that would cause her to lose a lot of work and their insurance premiums to go up because of all the care I was likely to need. Of course, my mom could have fought them in court, but didn't make enough to hire a lawyer and made too little to afford legal aid.

When I was born, within four days, I had my first surgery, a brain surgery. A few months later, it was determined that I had cerebral palsy. Thus, I spent most of my first three years on road trips between Green Bay and either UW Hospital in Madison or Children's Hospital in Milwaukee. My mom thus was not able to hold down a job as a single parent of a child needing monthly trips to the hospitals in a bigger city. But for the SSI payments I was getting, and the Medicaid that came with it, my mother would have gone bankrupt before I was two. In addition, in order to keep the SSI and Medicaid, my mom had to have a low enough income. Not wanting me to be without the Medicaid, she had no choice but to work minimum wage jobs. My mom did not start working a job befitting her skills until I was in high school, even then, she couldn't show her true capacity, if she did, she risked being promoted too fast and putting my Medicaid at risk, her company didn't offer a comparably cheap medical insurance.

When I was 16, I was going through severe depression at the same time my grandfather was dying of cancer. He passed away in the fall, and I was basically railroaded into moving in with my grandmother to help her with her depression, my aunts and uncles weren't up to helping and still aren't. By this time, my mom had a good job, but ended up having to help with two households, hers and my grandmother's. She wanted to maintain her independence, but couldn't after a while and had to move in with my grandmother to save costs. In the end, my grandmother got sick, and now my mother spends most of her time taking care of her now. She used to work in a nursing home, but since my grandma's health continued to worsen, my mother couldn't handle working forty hours a week on nights and then coming home and spending another over forty hours caring for her mom. I helped when I lived there, but I was doing most of the housework in between school and trying to find a job.

My mother's story is not unique in the United States. Many parents are unable to balance working with caring for their children and when they do get back into the workforce when the kid is in school, I would guess in order to not have to incur an extra expense of a day care or a babysitter, need to be able to work solely during the time their child is in school. That leaves part-time work their only option, and part-time work is almost inadvertently work that is paid at a rate that prevents them from being able to escape poverty. When they get back into the workforce, they are more likely to reenter the workforce at a lower pay-rate than they had when they left the workforce before they had kids.

 

Hmmmm, let me see, where are my right-wing talking points....

Oh, here we are: "Suck it up, whiner!"

"You had the same opportunities anyone else had, you just wasted them."

"How's your friend Karl Marx?"

"Move to Cuba, you'll be happier there."

"You are just envious of those who are more successful than you."

"Why should I have to pay for your medical bills?"

"Excuses are for failures. The successful get out and DO something."

"Obama will save you, don't worry."

"Socialism ain't pretty."

How am I doing?

 

You forgot the jewel I just heard yesterday "you reap what you sow". Just what did my mother and I sow to reap what we did?

 

Actually your story is more like, "This is what privatized healthcare looks like to an average person." And is still sad without having to change a word.

 

It's a darn shame you've had to go through that. You are tougher because of it, but the point you and others would like to make I'm sure, is, it wasn't you or your families fault. Those were the cards that were dealt to you. You got tough and made it. But, because of the rotten hand your mother was dealt, she and you suffered for a long time. And like you said, you are certainly no isolated story. That is why it is so disgusting to me that some people in this country feast on others bad luck like vultures, who couldn't exactly make their own kill, but waited for bad circumstances to happen to others, then capitalize on their misfortunes in the form of demonizing them. It's a very cowardly method they use. But it's one they never hesitate to feast on. They're just cowardly vultures waiting to pounce on others bad luck, just so they can prance around all self -righteous boasting how they have a job, work hard, and aren't parasites to society. But if that ever changes, there right in the same (*)(*)(*)(*) hole you had to crawl out of. I wonder what they'd say then?

Glad to see you weathered the storm. I know it's disheartening when you see so many, unjustifiably demonized for some of the same tough circumstances you went through. Remember this though; you are better than they will ever be. Never forget that.

 

Excellent example of how a person "sandbags" in order to receive government entitlements other people paid for. Thanks for sharing.

 

Partially yes. Though she still would have needed to take plenty of time off work to take me to all the appointments.

Okay, since you basically just insulted my mother, you tell me what the HELL she should have done? You're a medical expert. Go on. Tell us. What is a mother with a sick child to do?

I knew you were going to respond to this thread, in fact I was counting on it.

 

For everyone like your mother, there are a dozen working minimum wage jobs who are high school kids living at home with mom and dad, working for party money and gas for the car to go chase hottie down the drag where ever it is in your town. My only question is where was the hell was your dad. Unless he died young he should have been contributing financially. However all is not lost in the brave knew world after Obamacare people with your medical conditions won't even have the oportunity to be borne.

 

Don't bother with Str8Edge. This person is thinks in terms of causality and that causility is completely controllable by humans and specifically individuals, which is laughable. Anyway, waste of time.

 

Just out of curiosity, if you had a job then lost it because you were pregnant with a child with medical problems looming, insurance wasn't covering, didn't have enough money to fight the ins. company in court, and since you declared this circumstance as some kind of excuse/ someone else paying your medical bills, tell us tough guy, how would you come out in all this? What would you have done differently. Explain how his circumstance is one big cop out after another and what's your secret for doing better? Can't wait to here the answer from a real self sufficient hot shot who knows all the tricks of taking care of himself when the going gets impossible. GO!

 

Just one look at the other side of the coin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Fotheringham

 

The guy should have known better than to try for sarcasm with you around. Thin4achange is in most ways further left than you are.

 

By the way Pt. That isn't poverty. Poverty is some woman in Africa somewhere having a baby in a one room shanty with a dirt floor with a 30% chance that you or her or both will be dead of some sort of infection in a month. And if you have any sort of major birth defects the likely hood of you surviving more than 48 hours is slim to none.

 

Wow......way for the OP to completely be off target. If the situation was as dire as he says then she should easily been able to qualify for assistance from the government. I knew people who had simple back injuries with kids who had free healthcare (Badgercare) rent assistance and of course EBT for food. If this wasn't available in your state then your family should have moved to one that does have it. Increasing the minimum wage to cover the living expenses of an extremely tiny minority of minimimum wage workers is not the answer. The vast majority of min wage earners are either lazy sloths who don't aspire to much else, working teenagers or retirees looking for supplemental income.

I know this because I grew up around this class of people and while there are certainly some hard luck cases the vast majority of them were losers plain and simple. I was glad I left them in the rear view mirror and I don't even look back.

 

She should ask her husband for help. If he is a deadbeat, then she should have his wages garnished.

 

My parents were never married to each other. My father married a woman when I was 11-12 that lasted two years. My father paid child support. In fact, because of an unscrupulous business owner, my dad had to pay a couple thousand in child support again because the business owner stole the money before it was sent to the child support agency.

My mom is a proud woman, she only applied for food stamps once I had moved out when my rent to my grandma wasn't available to help defray costs of the house. The SSI was in my name and so was the Medicaid. We scraped by but just barely, we needed the car to be able to get back and forth to Madison and Milwaukee, so it had to be in a good condition.

Even if it wasn't available, we would not have been able to move. This was a time before HIPPAA and my medical records were all at CHW and/or UW, where the specialists were that my mom trusted. Honestly but for those specialists, the prediction that i wouldn't live past six would have probably come true.

It's poverty in America.

My CP was actually mild, what was the most concerning was the hydrocephalus, which precluded me from playing any sports, if I get hit in the back of the head, it could hit my shunt and cause it to dislodge and go further into my brain. A second shunt surgery to increase the length of shunt cord may have hit my thyroid gland causing obesity, I was a rail before the surgery and a few months later, I was much heavier. I'm just guessing on the thyroid thing based off the position of the shunt cord in my neck.

I actually didn't need crutches until I was 19 but I am pretty much now dependent on them.

I probably wouldn't even bother with him, but since he seems to rail against the poor so damn much, he pushes the exact wrong button.

Look at the 2011 BLS statistics, of the 3.8 million Americans making minimum wage or lower, under 900,000 are below the age of 19. The majority of the people on minimum wage are 25 or over.

My dad contributed child support. He also didn't have a very good job until I was four or five. He had visitation rights and his insurance helped with my medical expenses after he got his better job.

 

That's his problem. Apparently he thinks he has a gift for pulling rabbits out of hats. And everyone else should be able to do the same. I want him to show me how he pulls rabbits out of hats when the tough gets going. After all, he's the one putting out lists.

 

Ooh DUH! Just noticed that you are from my state. Then your mom should have had no issues whatsoever getting assistance. Wisconsin was infamous for ridiculously generous welfare benefits and only in the last 15 years or so did they lower the benefits to stop people from coming from all over the country to live here. Even then we still have more welfare benefits than most states.

If she was to proud to take it that is no ones fault but her own. In fact apparently you all survived so in the end your mom maintained her dignity so she made the right choice for her. I applaud her for that. That doesn't change the fact that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour is the answer.

 

I'm unsure what the point of this thread is. If I've got it correctly, it looks like an appeal to emotion as a crutch to support the notion of raising the minimum wage.

The OP's family should have had no problem whatsoever getting ample assistance; I live in Wisconsin and - particularly during the time frame in question here - it is one of the most generous States in the Union wrt to assistance.

 

People deserve to be paid whatever their market rate is, nothing more or less. If your skills are worth $5/h why should someone be forced to pay $50/h?

As to the rest of your story, rough things happen to people. One might ask should your mother have been having a child if she couldnt support it on her own? People go bankrupt because circumstances change or they didnt have a contingency plan. How is that misfortune other people's fault, why should they be forced to pay for it? What right do you believe you have to other peoples money and where did this moral belief come from?

 

How is this even relevant?

 

good thing we've moved on from that privatized system.... oh wait, we're the only country in the world to mandate people to buy health insurance from private companies without taking the profit out of said mandated coverage... which is all so we can maintain our dependency on private insurance companies in a heath care plan that costs us over half a TRILLION dollars MORE than what a single payer healthcare plan would

http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2012/0312friedman.pdf


@OP you gave an example of someone caught in what is known as a welfare trap, where someone is made worse off if they make more because they risk being cut off from their welfare.. which is a big reason why I support the idea of replacing our welfare system with a basic income system (see my thread here on the negative income tax http://www.politicalforum.com/showthread.php?t=338663)

in regards to your mother's working wages, many people would argue that if the minimum wage was raised your mother would be less likely to have a job to begin with.. which again is why I support the idea of a basic income system to replace the minimum wage system

 

I didn't insult her. You basically admitted she sandbagged to stay on Medicaid and public assistance...

That all depends on the state your in and what benefits Medicaid offers..... I know a couple from nursing school who has a Downs syndrome child and the state pays for ALL the care, including daycare, in house nursing etc. Both of them work(ed) full time and make(made) good money. Their money didn't affect their benefits.

I also see TONS of patients that are on social security disability due to their drug and alcohol addiction. They disappear the first of the month to get their check cashed, go out and drink and drug, then come back a few days later for the rest of the month. Our adult unit literally goes from 23 patients all month to maybe 2 or 3 patients on the first. Then fills up around the fourth or the fifth like clockwork.

MILLIONS of people abuse the system and get away with it every day, cheat on their taxes, (*)(*)(*)(*) their places of employment, etc. Basically, because instead of teaching our children how to think using ethics and values, we're too busy teaching them how to put a condom on a cucumber.

You mom's not alone. She fits right in actually.

What DO you do? The right thing. You do everything possible to support yourself and your child. Your mom didn't by your own admission.

 

don't forget this like...

"Virginia lawmaker: Children with disabilities are God’s punishment to women who previously had abortions."

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/02/22/disabled-abortion/


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Seems like your family relies on itself and not government. Good for you. Shame your mother did t have a comfortable life economically, but her son is probably doing better then she did and that is the point of opportunity. We don't all run the same speed, but as long as we are allowed to be in the race without restriction families go further each leg of the relay.