Interesting Reading

I read this article this morning: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/10/opinion/goldblum-diapers/?iref=obinsite

Probably the most interesting to me are the comments.  They usually are the most interesting of any article.  It is obvious to me that a lot of people feel rather strongly and hop onto the soap box quickly. I see it as getting there without necessarily doing their research.  Some do but they seem to be few and far between.

It is too bad our country can't figure out a method that works across the board for issues such as this.  Kids suffer because of the adults' political/religious/un-education/over-education (you pick you can stick something else in here) beliefs.  I don't care if it is diapers, money, school, or food that we are talking about.  It is our children that suffer.

It is too bad some of these folks don't seem to realize it really can be one catastrophe that sends a person to the "poor house."  It might be job loss, it might be a car accident, it might be the car breaks down.  A lot of times it doesn't have to include kids.  It is just more devastating when it does include kids.

I unfortunately do not have a solution.  I've been on both sides of the fence.  I work (well did until recently) and pay taxes but I grew up in a situation that most people would consider poor.  Well below the poverty level at any rate.  We didn't take the assistance that we could have but we certainly didn't have the luxuries of life.  T.V.?  Nope. Shoot, we didn't even have the appliances that most people consider standard.  No microwave or dishwasher.  They were too expensive to purchase in the first place and they were too expensive to operate.  I don't think in the long run we suffered at all, but I can't imagine that my folks had it very easy trying to tell their kids why we couldn't have any number of things.

It was little things that I remember.  I could have new tennis shoes or boots.  Not both, and they were from the second hand store a lot of the time.  Now I tell my own kids similar things.  Could I work and we would be better off?  Yes.  But the cost of childcare is insane.  We've done that too.  There comes a time when it costs you more to work than it does to stay home.  We were pushing $1000/month in part-time childcare at one point.  There are places that are even higher than that.  A part-time or minimum wage job just doesn't pay for that and the rest of your bills.  And sometimes that's all you've got at the time.

That is a big part of why we moved.  I had full-time work but my husband did not and although he was well educated he couldn't find anything more than part-time or minimum wage.  The job market stunk.  And to think, I had a job with no college degree that paid better than most of the degree-required jobs in that area.

There are so many issues surrounding the above topics.  Welfare, minimum wage, SNAP programs, education system, and basic work ethic.  I can only talk about what I know.  I've known people who've used the assistance programs and I've used the assistance programs.  I've never personally known any that liked it or lived well on it.  And the red tape that you have to go through in order to obtain those few dollars of assistance almost make it not worth it.  But it when comes down to whether or not to put food in the fridge you usually choose to put food in there.

It would be nice if they were as cushy as the opponents make them out to be but I've never known that to be the case.  It is hard to know that though unless you've been there.  And the funny part about that is that most people who are in a position of needing the assistance are usually too busy working to make ends meet to worry about the politics behind it all.

So, like I say, an interesting read for the morning.  It apparently got some random thoughts flowing on my end as well.  I wish I had solutions.  It would be better than just spouting off but right now all I have is the spout.