Dave wrote:

It should be obvious just by reading some of the opinions voiced here
on this forum. Criticism of people without health insurance. Criticism
of people getting social assistance. Criticism of people just trying
to survive. No one first wonders why people got into that situation.
The first inclination is to think ill of someone.

Ya know - when I first read this I was going to reply that it was pure
bull****, and then I finished reading the first paragraph. The very last
sentence is the one that really caught my attention. It really encapsulates
so much of what goes on here. Too many pseudo-experts, to many hairy
chested opinions, too many thoughts that simply attempt to deride others.
Ok - I realize that I'm getting too warm and fuzzy for a conservative, but
Dave is onto something here...


You see a street person begging for money. No one first thinks they
may be there because they got laid off and their luck spiraled down
until they wound up on the street. Instead the average person just
wants them to be somewhere else, anywhere else except begging money
from them. That's reality.

And then of course, there is the ever-present commentary from those who have
not YET been subjected to those very circumstances, which pride themselves
on babbling on about how they would never be caught in such a dilema.


If you believe the average person walking along the street seeing a
street person first thinks they may be there because they got laid
off, then you're completely deluded.

I have to admit that I do not. To a very large degree, most street people
are not there for that reason. The ones that are, are an insignificant
minority - BUT, your point still stands. Our current economy is turning out
families and people that are more like those of the 30's than ever before.
It's way to easy to sit back and talk about how others get into situations,
until your own sorry ass finds itself on the street one day. Way too many
people who have been very successful in their careers are now among the
ranks of the insufficiently funded (how's that for a new term?...), for the
proud wisdom of the internet to have any real meaning.

--

-Mike-