I Don't Get It ...

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

What I find quite amazing is that when Canadians look at a homeless man or an unemployed person on our streets, we sort of write them off and suggest that it is the persons fault for being that way. We sort of suggest that if the guy had any fortitude, he'd pull up his socks and get real with life. We continually tell the needy people of our own country that they got all that they are entitled to.

However; at the same time, we look at people in Iraq - Afghanistan, and try to find any reason or any excuse to help them out. We suppose that they are unable to help themselves and need some military people with a martyr mentality (Peace Keepers) to show them the way and without any thought of the financial costs.

Canadians are willing to give up their lives to help somebody in another country but won't give up a measley tax cut to help our people right here at home.

Maybe the government is just trying to train our soldiers and trying to get them used to killing people because they soon will be called upon to shoot unemployed (under-employed) protesters here in Canada. Just like the what happened at Ipperwash and Oka. Just like what the cops are doing to natives out west.

Calm

 

[MMMike]

That's an interesting observation Calm. I know personally, while I give to many worthwhile causes, I don't give the 'bum' on the street corner a dime when I walk by. Theres probably a few reasons for this: I've seen with my own eyes some of these 'destitute' people get into cars nicer than mine, because they are really after money to support a drug or alcohol addiction (try offering these guys food - half the time they'll tell you to F-off), because the same people are in the same spot day after day. Its like their job.

 

[#juan]

If a person is young and healthy,

He/she should be able to get a job. I have no idea how much money a panhandler can make on the street. Hell, maybe it's more than minimum wage. I know there are people on the street that are truly in need. I am as guilty as anyone of walking by them. I guess we will always have a segment of the population that down and out. I agree with Calm that we sometimes forget our own poor and that charity should begin at home.

 

[the caracal kid]

while there is indeed the professional street beggar, there is also the difference between "you" and "them" at play. A person off in another country is very easily identified as "different" (as in a country that is in poverty or war is a very different background to what canada currently is) but when it comes to the person on the street, people create ways to differentiate themselves from that person because to think "that person is like me..." leads to "that could be me" which is a very undesired potential. It is far easier to create mental constucts to distance yourself from the street person to maintain one's own sense of security than it is to help them.

 

[zenfisher]

I find if you are unsure about giving money...the best thing you can do is give food. Edge & I frequently will see people begging outside supermarkets and shopping centres. We reach in the back and pull something out and give it to them. I cannot remember anyone who did not take it and didn't say thanks.

 

[no1important]

A lot of it could be due to cuts by right wing governments to social programs, like welfare, job training, not to mention lack of affordable housing availble and the ridiculously low minimum wages.

 

[#juan]

the caracal kid

I think you've hit the nail right on the head...at least the biggest nail.

 

[CutThroat]

What I find quite amazing is that when Canadians look at a homeless man or an unemployed person on our streets, we sort of write them off and suggest that it is the persons fault for being that way. We sort of suggest that if the guy had any fortitude, he'd pull up his socks and get real with life. We continually tell the needy people of our own country that they got all that they are entitled to.

In this province there is no reason why you should be unemployed. Hell we have 2 meat packing plants in the province that will hire anyone. You don't need any skills, education, training, you don't need to know english, you just have to show up. And they start people at 12 bucks an hour and give them a place to live until they get their own pad.

It pisses me off when some able bodied person asks me for my hard earned money so he can sit in government funded homeless housing and get loaded every night.

 

[CutThroat]

Re: RE: I Don't Get It ...

A lot of it could be due to cuts by right wing governments to social programs, like welfare, job training, not to mention lack of affordable housing availble and the ridiculously low minimum wages.

Social programs just breed more homeless people. Free housing, free this and that just encourages these people to sponge rather than work. If you honestly feel these homeless people need more help then why don't you give them say 30% of your paycheck?

And its not like times are tough.

 

[Jay]

Calm,

What I don't get is the absolutely enormous amount of money being given in taxes, and we still have these problems. I think that is a problem.

 

[Reverend Blair]

What I don't get is the right's ignorance of reality. Many people who live in homeless shelters are employed. Many people who use food banks are employed. Many people who access social programs cannot work because they have disabilities.

 

[Jay]

And you would think that the totally enormous amounts of taxes being given to three different levels of government for the last umpteen years would have solved these issues long ago, but it hasn't. I think there is a problem here, and I don't get it.

 

[Reverend Blair]

It's because so much of it goes to pay off the debt that Conservative governments built up by paying off their corporate buddies.

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

I've been off-line since I opened this thread. I finally got my "normal" computer up and running as opposed to using my server.

Anyways; I sort of asked why we would spend money in Afghanistan and Iraq and not at home?

Money is money. In a sense, I'd rather see a "lazy" person get the money in Canada then to feed some "lazy" person in Afghanistan.
Howcome we find more pride in spending money on some fool in Afhanistan then we do with spending money at home? What does that Afghani guy got that poor Canadians don't have?

It pisses me off so much, that I often think that it's time poor people started to set off a few bombs of their own and then maybe they would qualify for help.

And; Martin and the Clowns sent these troops over to Afghanistan without even discussing it in Parliament.

Calm

 

[Jay]

Re: RE: I Don't Get It ...

It's because so much of it goes to pay off the debt that Conservative governments built up by paying off their corporate buddies.

Ok, let’s leave the partisan politics out of this for one wee bit.

 

[Jay]

I've been off-line since I opened this thread. I finally got my "normal" computer up and running as opposed to using my server.

Anyways; I sort of asked why we would spend money in Afghanistan and Iraq and not at home?

Money is money. In a sense, I'd rather see a "lazy" person get the money in Canada then to feed some "lazy" person in Afghanistan.
Howcome we find more pride in spending money on some fool in Afhanistan then we do with spending money at home? What does that Afghani guy got that poor Canadians don't have?

It pisses me off so much, that I often think that it's time poor people started to set off a few bombs of their own and then maybe they would qualify for help.

And; Martin and the Clowns sent these troops over to Afghanistan without even discussing it in Parliament.

Calm

If I may....Canada doesn't have a respected seat in international politics, especially in the West, because it stayed out of conflicts. The more we have to do with these situations, the more say we have in the end.

 

[Reverend Blair]

Ok, let’s leave the partisan politics out of this for one wee bit.

The partisan politics grow out of a difference of worldview. One is based on being greedy and refusing to face responsibilities, while the other is based on human beings having an intrinsic worth that must be measured by more than corporate profits. Partisan politics are integral to the discussion because the causes are related to the first worldview while the solutions are rooted in the second.

 

[Said1]

Ok, let’s leave the partisan politics out of this for one wee bit.

The partisan politics grow out of a difference of worldview. One is based on being greedy and refusing to face responsibilities, while the other is based on human beings having an intrinsic worth that must be measured by more than corporate profits. Partisan politics are integral to the discussion because the causes are related to the first worldview while the solutions are rooted in the second.

Spoken like a true Leninist. That's not a flame, I agree.

 

[Jay]

At least I can say I tried.

 

[Reverend Blair]

I'm not a Leninist though, Said. I'm not a Marxist, a Trotskyite, or a strict follower of Engles either.