Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Blog Action Day - Poverty
I have received a couple of tweets (twitter) regarding today being "Blog Action Day".
I checked it out after reading a couple of friends blogs on the topic. Then spent a couple of hours chewing over how or what I could blog about today to join in the conversation in the back gears of my mind.
http://blogactionday.org/home
Moments ago a light bulb went off! Oddly enough, I had a contractor at the house today from my Internet/telephone/cable provider to install my new business line into the house. In chatting, we got onto the topic of the election and then to the economy. The conversation turned at point when this gentleman talked passionately about a time in his life that was very low. Lets call him "Mo" for privacy factors.
Mo has been a hard working man that is a single father of two children. He is the sole bread winner in the family. He had been laid-off from his job because of a merger. Times got a bit tough while trying to get another job. His skills as a telecommunications tech are great but there are only so many providers to work for in a given area. Especially years ago!
He went to the State to see about getting some assistance with Food and Healthcare for his kids. Hold on this is good... According to Mo, he was too well off to get help. He made too much money on UNEMPLOYMENT. They combine this with his asset of a "Caddy" pushed him over the State maximums. If he sold his car, he might qualify.
Mo walked out of the office and never looked back. Sold his car? How was he going to look for work, go to interviews, and get to work without it? He only wanted a bit of help while he was briefly down on his luck. After all, he had been supporting these programs with tax dollars for years.
His moral of the story was there is a clear problem with the system that keeps people down and doesn't allow them to succeed. They are penalized for bettering themselves. His view of the welfare system wasn't pretty. They were encouraging him to fall into a trap that would be hard to get out of ever.
Poverty is a problem with solutions. The system has to have ladders to allow individuals career paths off the dole. Mo would have been happy with some help. Perhaps, half of the normal allotment of food stamps? Entitlements need to have timelines. Government assistance needs to help promote individuals to stand on their feet and contribute rather than enable generations to feed off the system.
Another part of the Blog Action Day is to not just write about the problem but do something about it. I have put countless people to work and helped them with the leg up over the years. I have regularly donated professional clothing to charity and dropped food off to the food bank or conducted food drives. Thinking about today what can I do to help? Well, I am going grocery shopping ... perhaps I will spend an extra ten dollars and drop it in the food box. That doesn't go far these days but it is something.
I checked it out after reading a couple of friends blogs on the topic. Then spent a couple of hours chewing over how or what I could blog about today to join in the conversation in the back gears of my mind.
http://blogactionday.org/home
Moments ago a light bulb went off! Oddly enough, I had a contractor at the house today from my Internet/telephone/cable provider to install my new business line into the house. In chatting, we got onto the topic of the election and then to the economy. The conversation turned at point when this gentleman talked passionately about a time in his life that was very low. Lets call him "Mo" for privacy factors.
Mo has been a hard working man that is a single father of two children. He is the sole bread winner in the family. He had been laid-off from his job because of a merger. Times got a bit tough while trying to get another job. His skills as a telecommunications tech are great but there are only so many providers to work for in a given area. Especially years ago!
He went to the State to see about getting some assistance with Food and Healthcare for his kids. Hold on this is good... According to Mo, he was too well off to get help. He made too much money on UNEMPLOYMENT. They combine this with his asset of a "Caddy" pushed him over the State maximums. If he sold his car, he might qualify.
Mo walked out of the office and never looked back. Sold his car? How was he going to look for work, go to interviews, and get to work without it? He only wanted a bit of help while he was briefly down on his luck. After all, he had been supporting these programs with tax dollars for years.
His moral of the story was there is a clear problem with the system that keeps people down and doesn't allow them to succeed. They are penalized for bettering themselves. His view of the welfare system wasn't pretty. They were encouraging him to fall into a trap that would be hard to get out of ever.
Poverty is a problem with solutions. The system has to have ladders to allow individuals career paths off the dole. Mo would have been happy with some help. Perhaps, half of the normal allotment of food stamps? Entitlements need to have timelines. Government assistance needs to help promote individuals to stand on their feet and contribute rather than enable generations to feed off the system.
Another part of the Blog Action Day is to not just write about the problem but do something about it. I have put countless people to work and helped them with the leg up over the years. I have regularly donated professional clothing to charity and dropped food off to the food bank or conducted food drives. Thinking about today what can I do to help? Well, I am going grocery shopping ... perhaps I will spend an extra ten dollars and drop it in the food box. That doesn't go far these days but it is something.
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