Sunday, August 5, 2007

Summertime... and Poor


The other day, on my way to work, listening to my 8 minutes allowed news yukk, I heard about the bill to help the children of the working poor have health insurance. I would like to say that this is a GREAT thing, and a step in the right direction, BUT it bothered me all day. Because if you work, you deserve not to be poor. Minimum wage is "suposed" to ensure that people have what they need to live. But if you can't afford health care, let alone decent food and shelter, then you don't make enough to live. Minimum wage was just raised to $7.25, and it's at least 13 dollars off. It REALLY PISSES ME OFF that hard working families aren't able to take their kids to a $%&@#* doctor!!! America needs some serious wealth redistribution.
There was a REAL LIVE politician who said, "No one should have too much, and no one should have too little." Can you imagine if Bush said, "Laura and I have too much. We're switching to clothes from Wal-Mart until all of America's, hell, the WORLDS children have health care." Now I'm just laughing. Or imagine if there was a cap on a person's net worth?

IRS Representative: Haris Pilton? You have exceeded your alotted ASL* (American Standard of Living) and we're going to take the excess to redisribute among the "working poor" so that they will now be "the working".

*ASL= 1 million if filing singly, 2 million if filing jointly or have dependants.

Even that sounds like too much. And I'm all aggro now, when all I wanted to do was tell you about lovely summer and creek things. Grrrrrrrr this is why I don't listen to the news!! Okay, back to our previously scheduled programming.

Channeling fluffy bunnies..... ommmmmmm

This place is summer to me. My Great Grandparents creek, on their 10 acres in Pennsylvania. I went there for several weeks every year when I was a kid, and only sporadically now. This time of year is when I think about all my family back there the most, pretty much every day. I wish all my family lived in one place.
Although, it was weird today, it's August and it never broke 70 degrees; I've been wearing a sweatshirt almost the entire day. In PA it was always at least 90 in the summer.
But I'm a digressin'. I hate traveling, but I love the destinations. I want to go to PA again, soon, I just wish I had a star trek transporter. Probably we all wish it were that easy. I will be traveling, though, to Arizona to visit me Mummsish. I am really looking forward to seeing her and her hubby and even her weird little dog. Sometimes I wish I would get fired so I would have no choice but to move out of this insanely expensive area. I'd like to spend a year in PA and a year in AZ, bein' with family and unwinding, exploring new life options. But I'd also be leaving family behind. :( I need to start a commune, where I will force all my peeps to live!! HAHAA! And I will be the queen! Hahahaha! Oh wait.

I need a winning lotto ticket. AKA the poor man's (more) tax. Dang, the fluffy bunnies are fading...

PS: The tax to support the children's healthcare? It's a cigarette tax, which is supposed to make people quit (and it hits the poor the most (???) but if it works and people quit, then what's going to pay for the kid's healthcare?? Why the @#$% not do a LUXURY TAX INSTEAD??? Hey there, Mr. Rich Guy, two thousand dollars of the tax on that new HUMMER you just bought is going toward helping little girls and boys get inhalers for asthma! Living in the least expensive/ most polluted part of the city has required that they get those! Okay, it's beer time.

8 comments:

jill or jay said...

okay, okay, I'll have a beer. If you insist, your majesty. Hey, does your mum live in AZ now? That's where I live. Can you tell me which town or is it top secret info? Did your dad show you the video I took on a PA vacation with you guys a million years ago? Would you like a copy? And I so agree about the health/working poor/ASL thing. I wish I knew what to do, or how to make a change. Who was the Real Live politician who said that great quote? Have a wonderful, safe, and fun trip.

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Anonymous said...

Hi Hermitgirl,

Summertime...and I wish the livin' were easy...Catfish are jumpin'...and the mortgage is sky high...

Yeah, I often think we should have a 'human suffering index' instead of the Dow Jones Index. Each day it should be anounced how well we are doing at stamping out poverty, disease, and hunger. What a cruel world where money and wealth matter more than health and happiness.

Your writing and photos are great.

Maewen Archer said...

Yep, the healthcare thing is lame. My husband never stops working and there is no way we could pay for health insurance, but I guess I don't like going to the doctor anyway.

If you start a commune, can I come live there? Maybe we could work on a fluffy bunny herd.

Unknown said...

Can I have a beer too??? LOL... you are right...health care should be a right. One of the many reasons i love canada...its not perfect but it is at lease accessable.. and that creek looks sooooooo nice... I would love to take a long walk around that creek.

Julie

Anonymous said...

Hi Hermitgirl,
Something you might find interesting. If the link doesn't work, you can copy and paste to your browser.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/06/3003/

Anonymous said...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/06/3003/

For some reason the entire address didn't show up the first time

Anonymous said...

OK. I give up. I'll email the link.