On 02/21/2016 05:48 PM, Muggles wrote:

Our country looks like it' wealthy, but the reality is a good many
regular people are living paycheck to paycheck in debt via credit cards,
and living way about their real means. It takes 2 incomes to just make
ends meet and sometimes that still isn't enough because the people are
underemployed, and a few paychecks from losing what they do have.

It's a ruse and slight of hand, imo. SOME people are genuinely wealthy,
but, I don't think that's really significant enough to say our country
is wealthy.



You are right, most people are not wealthy but there a lot of Americans
who are enormously so. The ultra rich could kick in a few percent of
their wealth and they'd never miss it.


That said: throwing money at a problem is not much more than a bandage
because if a person lacks the motivation to make something of
themselves, it's not going to do any good.


The NPO where my wife and I volunteered obtained most of their funds
through private donations. Unfortunately, the people who were supposed
to be running the organization could barely do so because most of their
time was spent just raising money to keep the doors open.


I saw a number of hopeless people totally turn their life around and get
jobs which brought in taxable income. Sure not all became highly
successful, but most made some type of improvement in their lives.