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You do realize that they didn't just wake up one day 28 years old flipping a burger? They chose that path. Again, college or a trade profession isn't given to the lucky few.

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If others want the same grants let them give the same service. Of course, the ones who "demand" the most and complain the most are usually the ones unwilling to actually "give" something in return for what they're demanding.

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There's only one CEO per corporation. The notion that everyone is upwardly mobile is naive. Many low-wage workers will be low-wage workers for life, no matter hard they work. You know that.
That's exactly the type of mentality that keeps someone a low-wage worker. "I'll never be anything more than I am so why work any harder?" Just because Bob Jones is the CEO of XYZ corp that doesn't mean that he's preventing someone else from being successful. I can guarantee that there are a LOT of people that make more than we do. They're not preventing us from being wealthy. Only we can change that.

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there are 74 million hourly workers

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It goes back to the question of whether you want companies to pay fair wages or you, the taxpayer, to make up the difference.

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One statistic I would like to see would be of the 5.2% of hourly workers who make at or below the federal minimum wage; how many are part of a 2 income household? The assumption here tends to be that they are the sole supporter.

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I actually find it more shameful that people work 2 or 3 jobs and still have to get public assistance and don't have healthcare. I am much more concerned about them than the people who aren't doing anything. I can't imagine anything more demoralizing than the financial treadmill they are on and the tightrope they are walking every single day.

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I actually find it more shameful that people work 2 or 3 jobs and still have to get public assistance and don't have healthcare. I am much more concerned about them than the people who aren't doing anything. I can't imagine anything more demoralizing than the financial treadmill they are on and the tightrope they are walking every single day.

"Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich or "The Working Poor: On Not Getting By in America" by David Shipler are both highly readable and eye-opening books on this topic.

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how are ALL these people in minimum wage jobs supposed to AFFORD a higher education? if they can't even afford home and food, how can they afford college? it's not like there is ALL this free money lying around to send these people to school. it's ridiculous.

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It is possible that most poor households could be well housed and have many modern conveniences but still face chronic food shortages and undernutrition. Poor families might have microwaves but a limited and sporadic supply of food to put in the microwave. Government surveys show that this is not the case for the overwhelming majority of poor families.

On average, the poor are well nourished. The average consumption of protein, vitamins, and minerals is virtually the same for poor and middle-class children. In most cases, it is well above recommended norms. Poor children actually consume more meat than higher-income children consume, and their protein intake averages 100 percent above recommended levels. In fact, most poor children are super-nourished and grow up to be, on average, one inch taller and 10 pounds heavier than the GIs who stormed the beaches of Normandy in World War II.[24]

However, even though the poor, in general, have an ample food supply, some do suffer from temporary food shortages. For example, a poor household with an adequate long-term food supply might need temporarily to cut back meals, eat cheap food, or go without if cash and food stamps run out at the end of the month.

Still, government data show that most poor households do not suffer even from temporary food shortages. As Chart 7 shows, 92.5 percent of poor households assert that they always had “enough food to eat” during the previous four months, although 26 percent of these did not always have the foods that they would have preferred. Some 6 percent of poor households state that they “sometimes” did not have enough food, and 1.5 percent say they “often” did not have enough food.[25]

The bottom line is that, although a small portion of poor households report temporary food shortages, the overwhelming majority of poor households report that they consistently have enough food to eat.

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This statement is BEYOND reprehensible. This man was paid a pittance to take bullets for a living, and because part of his compensation package is delayed and in the form of paying for his education later if he survives, you have the nerve to call it a HANDOUT?! By your definition, every government employee is getting a handout and government assistance because their paycheck is stamped US Treasury. Get over yourself.

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I-95, what are you talking about? It isn't like the man chose dis deployments. The navy deployed him where he was the most use to them. He could have done six months in Newport, six months in Pearl Harbor, then a year in the Gulf.

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I'm surprised the military isn't overrun with volunteers in these tough economic times. DH came from a family that could never have afforded M.I.T, or Duke, but the military paid his way and then gave him fantastic job training while he paid back his obligation....and allowed him to buy his first home using the GI Bill. We are most grateful to the military for that, eternally grateful actually, but the idea that he put his life on the line to get those benefits...just ain't the case.

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Krispy Kreme is about to reopen in our town, and several of my friends are going to apply. They're college-educated and in their late '30s or early '40s.

My college-educated husband who was laid off from his career job after 15+ years now works at a grocery store and every day he's approached by people we know casually who are interested in getting hired there. Of course, they usually throw in some barb like it's beneath them or their last resort.

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Work ethic-- a thing of the past in a lot of cases. I also know of several people who think that hard work is "beneath them."


Oh, this is so true. And even worse, I know of several people who just walked away from their bills-or even worse-their mortgages-and claim that they aren't lazy freeloaders!

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