UNITED WAY says almost half of U.S.households can't afford the basics

Really? So no ambition in the lower classes of society? And what about that 'shrinking middle class'? It doesn't refer to them moving up and out - it refers to them sliding behind. Is that because they lost their ambition?

 

So let me get this straight you want people to run this country who have never in their lives demonstrates the ability to run so much as a tiddly winks Tournament?

 

So she can do the job!? Good for her. Glad she came up with the funds. I did find it very hard to believe her to begin with. But income can certainly be a barrier to a job, just like millions of other things can be, is the bigger point. Her point really isn’t one at all, it’s rsther obvious and common sense

 

Unless you last name is Gates or Jobs or the like you didn't begin life rich. Most of the middle class started out poor, busted their humps and proved themselves and by so doing became middle class. People don't just dish out middle class jobs willy-nilly those jobs are earned along with the salary that goes with them.

 

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There is ambition, the middle class is growing not shrinking. This is all happening despite the policies of the pro government dependence policies of the left

 

In her case, she may want to lay off the multi thousand dollar outfits she is regularly photographed wearing. Then she might be able to afford rent.

OC's complaint was less about being too poor for D.C. rent and more about signaling to lobbies, special interests, public unions, and foreign interests that just like many of the corrupt politicians who go to D.C. middle class and come out a couple of decades later inexplicably multi millionaires, she is now for sale to the highest bidder.

Corrupt "book deal" and "speaking fees" incoming, maybe with a sweetheart mortgage or rent she somehow never repays in 5...4...3...

 

The "shrinking middle class" is another Complex lie narrative that needs constant debunking here. When I was a kid, we had 4 channels on a 19" color TV that cost $750 in 1970s $$. A "phone" was something attached to a wall that "rich people" had three of, that one better not be on past 9PM. There was no "casual dining" industry serving $15-20 meals to middle class diners nightly, no shopping malls and specialty retail to speak of, and U.S. children of all income strata didn't have more purchasing power than most of the world's countries have GDP. Our 800 sq ft house was middle class, not lower middle, and there were 0 middle class residential developments full of 3000+ sq ft homes, the few of those that existed were "rich" not middle class homes.

Amazon may have prospered then had it existed, but it would most certainly not have made its founder the richest man in the country fueled totally by middle class purchasing power. Entertainment celebrities didn't become billionaires, talk show hosts didn't make $70 million a year and game show hosts $10 million, all fueled by middle class advertiser revenue. The average life expectancy was 70ish, and half the middle class still worked outside, not in the burgeoning white collar industry in climate controlled comfort.

The middle class didn't have $100/bag to spend on high grade dog food or buy $50 bed pillows, $2000 mattresses. Today it does.

But sure, the "middle class is shrinking."

 

This is stupid because it would rule out everyone but the affluent from running for office in DC

 

She was given that suit by a stylist - for the photo shoot. She didn't own it, nor did she keep it for her closet.

She raised $862,000 - the majority of it from individual contributors at less than $200 per contribution.

You can be cynical if you choose - your right to do so. I saw it as shining a light on a very real issue about the money it takes to be a politician.

 

Exactly...and that's what's happening. We complain about people representing a public when they have no idea what it is like in that publics' shoes. And when a member of the public climbs up to represent, they are criticized for not being wealthy enough to afford an apartment.

 

Apparently so, we elected one to potus

 

Great. Let's stick to the plan of bringing in a million more per year who can't afford the basics, don't speak English, and have grade school educations.

 

This is humanity living on the DNC plantation.

https://nypost.com/2018/11/14/44-dead-dogs-found-in-freezer-of-new-jersey-womans-home/

 

That's the conservative middle class supporting both ends of the Democrat spectrum.

 

It’s stupid to take a job you can afford? I guess it depends on your definition of affluent. All I’m saying is they should at least be able to figure out how to make it to work, and take care of a basic need like housing. If you can’t figure that out, don’t take the job

 

Not sure how you define “public” but in my world the vast majority of the public isn’t homeless. They have housing, they take jobs they can afford to take, and homes they can afford as well. The “public” I know live within their means and criticize people that don’t, or take a job then complain they can’t afford to move to the job, knowing the requirements when they took it.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. This was a nothing more then a “open for business” sign she signaled to the lobbyist.

 

I looked through the data that United Way is using to demonstrate people living without basic necessities. You can find it here: https://www.unitedwayalice.org/by-state You have to select a state and then it will give you their budget and the hourly income necessary to meet that budget. Most states listed seem to be about $10 an hour. That's not anywhere near what you are talking about. People making $10 an hour don't sleep on $2000 mattresses. The highest state listed is Hawaii at about $16 an hour, but Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the US. Most businesses can afford to pay their employees $10-12 an hour. The largest employers in the US certainly can.

 

Arguendo (and the above sounds like a cover), the question then becomes why is a "Democratic Socialist of the People" wearing clothes that cost more than all the clothes I, a practicing attorney, own combined (yes, I am admittedly cheap, but still) ? Photo shoot or not? Unless it was some kind of modeling gig?

I don't care what she raised in her campaign, it's reasonable to interpret her rent complaints as waving a brown bag, one that will surely and soon be filled. After all, the Complex Left constantly accuses its opposition of "racist dog whistling" on far shakier grounds.

It's not cynical to be outraged by very middle class politicians going to Washington and then inexplicably being worth millions a few years down the road. Especially while tens of millions of Americans do real, hard work for decades, paying exorbitant taxes all the while, and come nowhere near the D.C. "career path to inexplicable riches." This is not a partisan issue and GOP certainly do it too. It needs to end. Graft via "speaking fees" (that paid off the Clintons to the tune of over $100 million in exchange for graft while they were in office) and these "book deals" where the publishers know a bunch of lobbies and other special interests are going to order the crappy resulting books by the thousands and millions needs to end.

 

No one is refuting the fact that there are plenty of relatively poor in the U.S. The dispute is over whether it's due to their own repetitive poor choices, which no amount of money or charity will ever correct, or due to low pay and other free market failings. Entry level and minimum wage jobs are not intended to support families and never have been, yet they are dishonestly spun as such. Many people, tens of millions in the U.S., regardless of -where- they start, will head right to the bottom and into permanent dependency due to dropping out of school, drugs and alcohol, committing crimes, illegitimate births, prosperity related diseases and the resulting disabilities. Any honest narrative on "the poor" in the U.S. should factor those people OUT of the calculations as irremediable, yet somehow they NEVER do.

From LW Brookings:

https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/...teens-should-follow-to-join-the-middle-class/

1. Don't drop out. 2. Don't get married or have children before they are affordable. 3. Get a full time job and keep at it.

"Our research shows that of American adults who followed these three simple rules, only about 2 percent are in poverty and nearly 75 percent have joined the middle class (defined as earning around $55,000 or more per year)."

Finally, the main thing that all the LW Complex narratives on the poor ALWAYS omit is that "the poor" and "the rich" are not static categories of people. The rich (or at least the middle and upper middle classes) in the U.S. are, with only outlier differences, the EXACT SAME PEOPLE, just at different points in time.

Here it is from a genius, especially the first video (reading his book on historical conquest now, highly recommended):

 

It's kind of like ten million people sitting and watching the world's biggest garden rot; starving to death because no one has come to pick the crops.

 

You and I are on the same page here - that lobbies and special interests are ruining the country. I don't begrudge someone taking advantage of popularity or fame and translating that into money for themselves. But I do have a problem when favors are exchanged.

 

Really? Are you going to join the crew who are shaming her for being dressed in expensive clothes for a photo? How about you wait until she assumes her seat and criticize her for being a Dem...because this is just silly. And, frankly, beneath you.

 

the real threat is major corporations, they have been controlling things for decades and it'll only get worse...

 

Corps are only successful because people make the choice to purchase their goods or services. Businesses don’t take people’s lives, liberty or property by force only Govt can do that.