Poverty - Canada's National shame

[Tyr]

It's not quite three miles from Canada's richest postal code (West Vancouver) to it's poorest (Strathcona), yet they are two very different worlds.

What are we as a society prepared to do about poverty and homelessness in Canada

Victoria -- André Picard reminds us of the utter hypocrisy in the slew of financial bailouts we've seen (Bailouts Expose Health-Care Hypocrisy - Life, Feb. 12). The financial estimates to provide the basic building blocks of health - clean water and sanitation - to those in the world living in dire poverty (under $2 per day) would cost about $100-billion. Is that a lot of money? At 2 per cent of the more than $5-trillion that is currently being used to bail out financial institutions, telling us we can't afford it is profoundly disturbing.

I agree with Mr. Picard: This is not an economic failure, it is a moral one. And it's heartbreaking to see that message buried inside your newspaper and yet so evident on Canada's streets.

 

[Said1]

There's nothing stopping you from helping, Tyr.

 

[Tyr]

There's nothing stopping you from helping, Tyr.

ah, but I do. Volunteer work at the The Portland Society

 

[Said1]

ah, but I do. Volunteer work at the The Portland Society

What's that?

I was thinking about having a clothing drive for women who are returning to work after an extended period of time. If you don't have the right clothes, people don't often take you seriously. As shallow as it sounds, it's true.

 

[VanIsle]

ah, but I do. Volunteer work at the The Portland Society

Really. I actually had to look this up because, not being a Vancouver resident, I had never heard of it before. I am surprized that you would work at such a place as you had such distain for me, the lowly cashier. You disapprove of the lower paying jobs where people are able to help themselves but go help out the less fortunate. Seems quite the double standard. I have a hard time believing that you go near the Portland Society.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

Tyr; The issue of world poverty is difficult to deal with, the citizens of many impoverished countries are held that way by despotic leaders. We and other countries send aid workers into harms way to help these folks, financial aid often ends up in the hands of these leaders to bolster their military forces for no other reason than to suppress the populace. Short of invasion there is little else we can do.

In our country poverty rates are grossly overstated. Sadly, poverty is a business which creates work, much like many of the other issues persued by advocacy or pressure groups. Many of the folks who really need the help either get little or none while those who don't need it get "free" money. I live in a part of the country which has 3rd generation welfare families, these aren't people who've fallen on hard times and I have little sympathy for them, they also take from those who, through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times. All these people are numbers that are crunched together in order to extort money from us workers and we are still made to feel guilty for not doing more. Money does not solve money problems.

You mention Strathcona, (never been there), but every city has places like that, they are visible, and some folks have problems that are unsolvable. Many are there by their own actions, (or inactions) too. But if you see how much a lot, (not all) of them spend on their habits it would make for a decent living in a place Kandahar SK. We all have choices. I have a daughter living in St Petersburg where there is a great divide beween the rich and poor, and virtually no middle class. Most folks earn about 6000 rubles/month, (a little over $200), sure they are miserable, but they are also resourceful and resiliant. To my knowledge they are a proud people, not ashamed.

If Canada has a shame it is coddling the lazy and/or unmotivated, it is the Newfies and Capers working in Alberta that I admire, or anyone who struggles through adversity to actualy make a living. And before you ask, no, I never lived on the streets, I was lucky to have a car, I lived in it while travelling the country picking up work to pay for the thing and put gas in it.

 

[Ron in Regina]

Yep....We Suck! So which Nation doesn't have any poverty, so that we
can emulate them?

 

[lone wolf]

Welfare bums.... Does it make it easier for some folks to sleep at night when they lump folks of lesser all together and accuse them for circumstances they just may not have created? Poverty IS a shame ... NOT a crime.

 

[#juan]

About a week or so ago I watched an interview with a group of Vancouver's "poor". A good number of them were young(late teens, early twenties)and fit and looked able to earn their own living. The young and fit should be drafted into the military and trained into some vocation or trade. Otherwise we will be seeing these same people for the next twenty five years. I know there are deserving people truly down and out and at wit's end just trying to survive. These people should be helped because that is what Canadians want to do. I don't think anyone should feel ashamed.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

Welfare bums.... Does it make it easier for some folks to sleep at night when they lump folks of lesser all together and accuse them for circumstances they just may not have created? Poverty IS a shame ... NOT a crime.

The problem is that there are those who are able bodied who tax the limited resources needed for those who are in dire straits through no fault of their own. There are many who are on social assistance because it pays better than working, now that IS a shame.

 

[lone wolf]

The problem is that there are those who are able bodied who tax the limited resources needed for those who are in dire straits through no fault of their own. There are many who are on social assistance because it pays better than working, now that IS a shame.

Yeah ... but NOT Canada's.

There mooches in every public purse. If they didn't know entitlement (and, usually, how to work the system) that would be their shame. They are the ones you call the Welfare Fraud Hotline about ... only to find you're speaking with some call centre in India.

 

[Said1]

The problem is that there are those who are able bodied who tax the limited resources needed for those who are in dire straits through no fault of their own. There are many who are on social assistance because it pays better than working, now that IS a shame.

Like who? I don't know anyone who makes more on welfare than they would working. And I know A LOT of people on welfare. Keep in mind, monthly child tax credit is not welfare.

 

[darkbeaver]

Tyr; The issue of world poverty is difficult to deal with, the citizens of many impoverished countries are held that way by despotic leaders. We and other countries send aid workers into harms way to help these folks, financial aid often ends up in the hands of these leaders to bolster their military forces for no other reason than to suppress the populace. Short of invasion there is little else we can do.


You must be monumentally uninformed or of the useless decadent wealthy class or both. World poverty is directly a result of colonialism and it's evil little sister economic neo-liberal globalization. There isn't a western democracy that dosen't murder for resources and hasn't got blood up to its elbows since at least a century. Those despots are our men every last filthy one of them. Your ideas about forigne aid are the retarded stuff of self congradulatory delusion.
We will have a day when the decadent rich and lazy are not coddled not encouraged not fed not tolerated not permitted.
It takes a particularly low specimin to blame the poor for poverty and ignorance. No doubt your sence of self worth is bolstered by pissing on the disadvantaged.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

Like who? I don't know anyone who makes more on welfare than they would working. And I know A LOT of people on welfare. Keep in mind, monthly child tax credit is not welfare.

Well I'm certainly not going to name names, but I have relatives who've not worked for decades, two of which are fully able bodied youngish men, and living under the same roof keeps expenses down. It costs money to work, so why do it if you don't have to?

 

[Said1]

Well I'm certainly not going to name names, but I have relatives who've not worked for decades, two of which are fully able bodied youngish men, and living under the same roof keeps expenses down. It costs money to work, so why do it if you don't have to?

You point was that they make more. My point was that they do not. I don't care if they're lazy and don't mind being poor. A single man in Ottawa receives $520 per month, max. You could make a lot more working full time, at minimum wage, right? Which is my point.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

You must be monumentally uninformed or of the useless decadent wealthy class or both. World poverty is directly a result of colonialism and it's evil little sister economic neo-liberal globalization. There isn't a western democracy that dosen't murder for resources and hasn't got blood up to its elbows since at least a century. Those despots are our men every last filthy one of them. Your ideas about forigne aid are the retarded stuff of self congradulatory delusion.
We will have a day when the decadent rich and lazy are not coddled not encouraged not fed not tolerated not permitted.
It takes a particularly low specimin to blame the poor for poverty and ignorance. No doubt your sence of self worth is bolstered by pissing on the disadvantaged.

Boy, someone must have p*$$ed in your fruitloops. The colonialism you so despise helped create the wealth that allows you the opportunity to better your lot in life. Bloodshed in exchange for real estate has been going on for eons, and will continue, but folks like Robert Mugabe, Idi Amin, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, et al are not "our" men. It is leaders like that who keep their population in poverty while they live high.

I don't "piss" on the disadvantaged, but I did bust my butt to get ahead, and I don't feel guilty for that. Most rich folks got that way by not being lazy, I do however despise those with ill gotten gains, some of them are being caught too. I don't hate the rich as you do, they seem to be the only ones who offer me work.

 

[bobnoorduyn]

You point was that they make more. My point was that they do not. I don't care if they're lazy and don't mind being poor. A single man in Ottawa receives $520 per month, max. You could make a lot more working full time, at minimum wage, right? Which is my point.

In the Maritimes it is hard, if not impossible to find full time work, even at minimum wage, (why else are they going to Alberta?). That is the complaint here, people do better on social assistance than working, especially if there are a few people living under the same roof. It is the welfare recipiants doing the complaining, not everyone else.

 

[Tyr]

Really. I actually had to look this up because, not being a Vancouver resident, I had never heard of it before. I am surprized that you would work at such a place as you had such distain for me, the lowly cashier. You disapprove of the lower paying jobs where people are able to help themselves but go help out the less fortunate. Seems quite the double standard. I have a hard time believing that you go near the Portland Society.

I have a hard time with people in low paying jobs who continuously whine about it. Those that accept they lot in life or do what needs to be done to improve it, I have no problem.

As for the Portland Society, I teach people to read and basic scholastic skills in order for them to get their GED

At least I DO SOMETHING!!!

 

[Said1]

how long have you been doing this?

 

[Said1]

In the Maritimes it is hard, if not impossible to find full time work, even at minimum wage, (why else are they going to Alberta?). That is the complaint here, people do better on social assistance than working, especially if there are a few people living under the same roof. It is the welfare recipiants doing the complaining, not everyone else.

At first, you kind of made it sound like they're lazy and making a choice not to work because and didn't mind being poor and having roommates.

I'm also curious why there's bus adds here (Ottawa) appealing to people to 'come home' to the Maritimes, cause there is work?