It was in the Friday edition. I knew I had to find it on-line and post it here!

Do you know how hard it is for the rich to decide which vacation home to fly their private jet to?! And lets not forget the suffering that those outraged by people saying "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas" must endure!

they have to send their servants ahead with about 48 hours of lead time so the next villa can be cleaned and aired out, all the sheets pulled off the furniture and laundered, and local merchants contacted to fill the larder with the best the region has to offer.

It's just such a bore waiting for the servants to do their thing.

relying on SS and school financial aid!

Those checks are barely enough to pay rent and buy my groceries with. By the time I buy all the necessities for the month, there's nothing left over to put away in case of an emergency.

They make me so angry.

I did that for 5 months with 3 kids AND with a car...that was fucking hard enough. I really feel for people who have no choice but to do that...

ugh. 75% of conservatives are heartless and narcissistic and lack empathy. No surprise. They are people with no ability to examine themselves introspectively...their entire life is spent in anger blaming everyone else for their problems. No compassion for anyone but themselves. They make me sick.

When they argue that the existence of a social safety net encourages people not to work. I ask they why they are still working. I mean, they know they could get benefits, right? So why don't they stop working?

They are liars when it comes to their excuses which show they want the poor to suffer. I have no idea why. Could be they need poor people to suffer so they can feel good about themselves. If someone is not poor and suffering, they can't be happy about what they achieved.

"Poor people have it easy because they just mooch off the government dole all day while I have to work to make a living!" Say people who would fall into a panic attack if forced to live as a welfare recipient for just 5 minutes.

But I always want to know the exact questions that were asked before I flame out. Was the question "are the poor better off in the US than in the rest of the world?"? Or was it "do you think the poor in the US have it easy?"? Too many times, I have seen results skewed or misrepresented because the question traps you. Think about if you are asked "do you like Obamacare?" and you really wanted a Medicare For All program instead and find Obamacare lacking in too many ways. You should say "no", you do not like Obamacare...and they will lump you in with the right wingers. Follow-up questions on this are needed to separate the people who are dissatisfied because they want no reform and the ones who wanted much more.

But from my conversations with conservatives, I know that they have the stereotype of the welfare queen...that mythological creature that cannot be killed.

What are they, lazy?

Averages $1200 a month, they have Medicare which costs $104.50 a month and I guess they are getting rich on this. On the other hand the ones who are trying to cut the entitlements are getting much nicer salaries and a hell of a pension in the future. But they see to corporation farms getting subsidies.

that America's poor would not be poor in third world countries. So this is what American exceptionalism amounts to? American dream my arse! We're brought up in a culture where we are indoctrinated from birth that our only civic duty is to consume; then, economic hard times come and more and more people can't participate meaningfully in consumption; meanwhile, everything and everybody around you is screaming at you to be consumed. But by gawd, we got it good compared to those Bangladeshis! We're number one!

Because I don't believe that. Not by a long shot.

When I was about to start the 6th grade in public school our school District was desegregated, sort of. I was sent to a formerly all black junior high in one of the poorest parts of town. The school was 95% black, 3% Hispanic, 1% white! and 1% Vietnamese AFTER desegregation. I learned that my name was "White Boy" and I learned what discrimination is like 1st hand! I did not like it at all! I had already seen how some whites treated blacks and now the roles were reversed. It taught me a whole lot about black culture (never ever get a black girls hair wet) and it taught me to never discriminate, I learned how unfair it is, the hard way.

This school was very run down, most of the lockers were broken as was most of the equipment. The teachers for the most part sucked and didn't want to be there. The School District sent all of the bad teachers there as a sort of dumping ground. I once saw my overweight math teacher walking down a crowded hall between classes when a rat chose the wrong moment to try to cross. She never saw it until it was too late, squash!

After several beatings we moved so my brother could get in a special education program that they didn't even offer at the elementary school across the street, and so I would not end up like the white kid that had lived at the end of my street (head bashed in with a pipe).

I then went to another Junior High still in the same school District which was 90% white. I was 10 or more chapters behind in all of my classes, but everything was relatively new and it all worked. Other than a succession of crappy math teachers, the rest were very good. Instead of almost everyone on the Free Lunch program, there were relatively few and they were ridiculed.

Poor and minority Americans DO NOT have the same opportunities as whites in this country! They usually do not have an Uncle or friend high up in the refinery that can get you that good job. They do not have the grades, or knowledge, or money usually to get into college because they got the worst of everything.

I didn't even discriminate in marriage, I have one white ex-wife and one black ex-wife, lol. Both with my first hand experience at the black Junior High, and from what my black wife, let's call her Kim, told me it was like for her, blacks do also need to take a hard look at their own culture. I will relate her experience as it was something I saw several times. Kim's dad was a retired Marine Drill Sargent who stressed education, and I mean STRESSED! She was always on the honor role and later received her Masters degree. While at school she was ridiculed, ostracized, and even threatened because she showed she was smart and she made good grades. She was constantly accused of "trying to be white" because she worked hard and excelled in class. I heard that phrase used to a black friend of mine who shared a love of reading with me when report cards came out one day and some other kids saw he made straight A's. They bragged about how many F's they had and one kid told me he tried to hide his grades because his dad would accuse him of trying to be smarter than him. Don't get me wrong, this cultural issue pales in comparison to the lack of opportunity for a good, quality education I received at the mostly white school.

While my post deals a lot about racial discrimination in education, even the poor white schools I have seen, while usually a little better than the mostly black Junior High Schools, lag behind in physical facility, quality of teachers and equipment. The bottom line is that you cannot say they had the same opportunities as the kids of wealthy parents. They get stuck in a cycle that only the best and brightest of the poor are ever able to escape, and minorities have it the worst!

Walk a mile in their shoes before you open your mouth to talk about how easy they have it and how lazy they are because that is usually just a bunch of ignorant bull shit! (I apologize for length cause I had to get that off of my chest).

working under the table earning unreported income while collecting unemployment or other benefits. The thing is, even doing this, the poor are still poor, just a little less so. Maybe there's fresh milk and bread more often. Maybe there's enough money for cable or even a movie out.