How do we chose to spend our tax dollars?

Even more jarring was the death of a homeless woman at a bus stop across the street from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Inside, officials were debating the budget to be allocated for programs on the homeless. One HUD employee looking out a window toward the scene "grew sardonic counting seven police cars, two police motorcycles, a fie truck and an ambulance. 'It's just strange to see how many resources a person gets after they die--not a fraction of that beforehand,' she said" (DeParle, 1993)

How do we choose to spend our nation's money?

This is from an excellent book titled "One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All" by Mark Robert Rank, p.281 . I highly recommend this book for some eye-opening reading. We need to start getting ourselves very familiar with poverty information, in order to speak intelligently to others!

:hi:

They do as little as possible & the poor & homeless are last on the list.
It is absolutely shameful how little they care & how much they don't want to hear about it.

That is certainly true... both locally and nationally.

I'm having a harder and harder time trying to speak up... it's so defeating.

Yet, that is why there MUST be more and more voices, getting louder and louder!

:hug:

That story is heartbreaking and, unfortunately, not so rare. Thanks, Bobbie, for keeping things like this within our sight. Privileged to give it a recommendation as a Greatest Thread!

:hu:

Sounds like another good book to add to my list.

(I tried to get The Street Lawyer from my library the other day but their copy was out. I'm looking forward to reading that.)

I hope you will get it... it talks about the Conservative Paradigm of Poverty, the Liberal Paradigm of Poverty, and the New Paradigm of Poverty. Much to think about, and new ideas for many.

Liberals don't want to look at their own part in continuing the disastrous poverty polices in this society, so they go on and on and people suffer.

This book shows just how disastrous the liberal policies ARE.

One really good image he uses is of Musical Chairs.... it's a great analogy for poverty in the US.

Another book which was the discussion book for this month is Mountains Beyond Mountains, by Tracy Kidder. Although it's about a US doctor who practices among the poor folk of Haiti, the real message is about making decisions based on what is best for poor folk, rather than what is best for the status quo. The book is great, and the discussion was terrific. I'll send you the discussion questions, if you'd like.

Thanks, pamela.... I'm glad you're finding the books helpful!

:hug;

who is graduating and then off to college. The other half I'm going to turn into $10 bills and hand them out to any homeless persons I can find. It's not much, but maybe if they can buy themselves a meal or even a drink it will make me feel better. The homeless have always intrigued me, and I always think of the Joan Baez song "there, but for fortune, go you or I". I have been blessed.

but your idea is great, and I applaud you.

:applause:

One day, I was shocked to get to my car in the parking lot to find that someone had put money in the wiper.

I had tears in my eyes, and have no idea who it was.

Yes, the money was fine.. but it was the idea that someone CARED enough.

It stands out strong in my memory, so yes, I think your idea is great.

:kick:Thanks, Bobbie, for bringing what looks like a wonderful book find to our attention. I intend to bump it to the top of my 'must-read' list...:thumbsup:

This is one that is TERRIFIC.... and one that I'd dearly love to have as my own... for reference, because there is soooo much in it:

One Nation, Underprivileged, by Mark Robert Rank.

It's different enough that it's taking me some rereading to really grasp it all.

See if you can get it from your library, and bump *it* to the head of your reading list.

just for me, 'k? ;-)

:) :hi: :)

Feudalism aka American Capitalism: http://mypage.uniserve.com/~synergy/welcome.htm

It's a bit dated by now, having been written in the early nineties, however even then the 'financialization' of the US economy was evident to the author. He explains in detail how the various economic policies in place define and reinforce the elite power structure.

Of course, The Money Masters and Money as Debt are essential for understanding how the banking interests operate, both of which can be viewed at Google Video.

Finally, Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse is a look in particular at the type of class warfare being waged by BushCo. Palast has put an audiobook up for free download -- it's highly recommended. Most of the material is recycled from Palast's investigative pieces, which are also kindly posted at gregpalast.com

Unfortunately, there are also inaccuracies. It says there is no homelessness in Russia and China. Well, I just googled for China, and it's "a growing problem", and sounds pretty severe.

It doesn't really help us to put out inaccurate info.

It is owned and run by and for the ruling class. There is no patronage for the poor because there is no profit in it. Just makes me sick.
:kick: & R

the words they use.

Yet, we are then criticised for seeing the reality.

the more I'm reminded of the time that I was ranting to my dad about some government-funded atrocity. I kept repeating "you ARE responsible, because you are paying the government to do these horrible things to people" and he kept defending himself. Finally he ended the argument by standing up and shouting, full voice, "I'M NOT PAYING THEM, I'M BEING HELD UP AND ROBBED!!!!!!!!."

It's time to take this country back from the robber barons of the 21st century, and it's time to hold our lawmakers and our justice system accountable for accomplishing their only true mission.

Kicked, and recommended.

:hi:

and the great book recommendation! The more we know, as hard as it can be to face, the better armed we are to act against it! Peace, Mary

LOCAL COSTS OF IRAQ
Taxpayers in Congressional District 20 (Gillibrand) have paid $1.6 billion for the Iraq War thus far. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided for each of the past five years:


1,794 Affordable Housing Units OR (yes, in my little district for EACH year!!)
3,656 School Teachers (I think more)OR
58,215 People with Health Care OR
591,010 Homes with Renewable Electricity OR
6,093 Public Safety Officers OR
51,514 Scholarships for University Students OR
17 New Elementary Schools OR
110,312 Children with Health Care OR
35,966 Head Start Places for Children OR
4,744 Port Container Inspectors

you could also have all the above for EACH divided equally thus:

179 new homes AND
367 teachers AND
5,821 People with health care AND
59,101 homes with renewable electricity AND
609 Public Safety Officers AND
5,151 Scholarships for University Students AND
2 New Elementary Schools AND
11,031 Children with health care AND
3,597 Head Start places for children AND
474 Port Container Inspectors AND

Just think of how much lower your property and school taxes could be!

The above was extrapolated from data from the National Priorities Project.


I made a flier of the above information and have been posting it around town, have to keep checking the bulletin boards as they keep disappearing!! I myself don't care about additional cops or inspectors, but the folks in the area need to feel "safe" to read this stuff...Anyway, our priorities need to be adjusted drastically! as you keep pointing out so well!

"Just think of how much lower your property and school taxes could be!"

Just think of all the good that could be done if we kept our property and school taxes the same, and weren't feeding the military-industrial beast.