Who are the real losers?

[ysabetwordsmith]

I got this from CREDO Action. I'm getting extremely tired of listening to rich, powerful people claim that poor, disempowered people are "lazy" and "losers." Poor people don't work less hard than rich people. They just get paid a lot less for busting their butts, and they have a lot less influence over what happens.

Tell CNBC: Listen to Jon Stewart and report the news.
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3074&id=2992-1494698-_zXJ.gx&t=6

We know about the Bush administration turning a blind eye and refusing to regulate bad behavior. We know about the banks that played fast and loose with our retirements, and then, when it all blew up, they took golden parachutes lined with our tax dollars.

On March 12, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show discussed another serious problem: financial news networks like CNBC that promoted Wall Street propaganda and then blamed the financial crisis on "losers" who couldn't make their mortgage payments. Stewart took on Jim Cramer of CNBC -- the interview was moving, appalling, and a searing indictment that really hit home. Click to watch the video and see for yourself:

Click here to tell CNBC that they should be ashamed of their behavior. A financial news channel should investigate and report the truth, not
merely air infomercials for Wall Street.
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=3074&id=2992-1494698-_zXJ.gx&t=8

Thank you for working to build a better world.

Kate Stayman-London, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=1613&id=2992-1494698-_zXJ.gx&t=9
from Working Assets

Comments

[bodhifox.livejournal.com]

Our sketchily cobbled together bets on bundled securities failed because we bought them from financial institutions that practiced predatory lending, aimed at people who were pushed to buy things to keep the economy going, even though they worked at jobs that didn't provide a living wage.

Someone put up a chateau near one of my favorite farms recently. I really do, karma be damned, wish for them to burn in hell.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> Our sketchily cobbled together bets on bundled securities failed because we bought them from financial institutions that practiced predatory lending, aimed at people who were pushed to buy things to keep the economy going, even though they worked at jobs that didn't provide a living wage.<<

Precisely.

>>Someone put up a chateau near one of my favorite farms recently. I really do, karma be damned, wish for them to burn in hell.<<

Hell isn't very educational and doesn't always fit the crime. I'm more subtle and more sadistic, myself. I wish for the upper-class perpetrators to become environmental refugees with nothing but the clothes on their backs stuck in a hostile foreign country where they don't speak the language. That will give them a better understanding of what they put other people through.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

I was temping at a rather conservative company in January, and happened to be there on MLK Day. As we watched the MLK Day parade forming up on the street below, one guy started going on about how all those losers needed to get jobs and stop campaigning for stuff like free/accessible healthcare for all.

Very softly, I said "I work three jobs and I can't afford healthcare." Cue sputtering. His eventual response was: "Yeah, but you CAN go to the hospital and get care. Everybody can do that."

*sigh*

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

Thank you for having the courage to speak up. More of us need to do that, and keep doing that until it finally sinks in.

Yes, there are people who milk the welfare system (I've met a few) - but they are a very small minority, and I'm sick and bloody well tired of everyone who isn't swimming in money getting painted with the same brush, and outrageous assumptions being made about "the poor." It just infuriates me.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I really admire you for saying something. When I was in a similar position I didn't have the courage.

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh there are a lot of times I say nothing... but as I get older and crankier, it gets easier to open my big mouth. ;)

Good for you!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> I said "I work three jobs and I can't afford healthcare." <<

People need to understand that having money means you live in a very different America than if you don't have money. Americans in general work harder, longer, for less pay and much fewer benefits than people in civilized countries. It only looks good in comparison to developing nations. I don't find that encouraging.

>>Yeah, but you CAN go to the hospital and get care. Everybody can do that." <<

Not really. If it's an emergency, the hospital is supposed to help whether you can pay or not. But they have ways to delay that, like demanding lots of information, and some places will use those tactics. And if it's anything less than an emergency, health care providers can and will turn you away, even if you life is in danger -- especially if you already owe them money, even a little bit. If you need expensive medicine to survive or be functional, and you can't afford it, you don't get it. Even if you do get the help you need, it isn't free, and if you can't pay for it then the provider will turn the bill over to a collection agency that will destroy your life in attempt to get money you don't have.

Re: Good for you!

[newroticgirl.livejournal.com]

It's a good thing I'm reasonably healthy, there's no way I can afford a hospital visit. Or an ER visit. Or even a basic doctor's visit.

[brtjam.livejournal.com]

I had a rather heated argument outside of my friends' HS on Election Day with someone that lives in a very rich suburb. Basically, the point he was trying to make was that "rich" people made "good" decisions and "poor" people either made "bad" decisions or were just too stupid/lazy/whatever in the first place.

As someone who is probably never going to be as well off as this guy, I was extremely offended and told him as such, pointing out that in some cases the jobs that "poor" people work require a lot more effort than those of "rich" people, but he mostly ignored me [he was in his 40s or so, which probably explains why he didn't listen to me; I'm turning 20 this year].

But I did get a LOT angrier when one of my friends told me that they knew for a fact that the guy I argued with got a lot of money from his parents to pay for college and start his dental practice. I thought it was horrible of him to accuse "poor" people of being lazy when he probably didn't work a day of his life until he got out of college.

Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>> Basically, the point he was trying to make was that "rich" people made "good" decisions and "poor" people either made "bad" decisions or were just too stupid/lazy/whatever in the first place. <<

Like the "good" decisions that created and then burst the housing bubble, crashed the stock market, and stagnated worker wages while pocketing huge profits themselves only to discover that -- gosh! what a surprise! -- broke people can't buy products or make loan payments? Oh yes. Terribly impressive.

Re: Hmm...

[brtjam.livejournal.com]

Or the "good" decisions that were funded by his rich parents.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I'm getting extremely tired of listening to rich, powerful people claim that poor, disempowered people are "lazy" and "losers."

Hear hear. I've been tired of hearing that for twenty years and more.
*goes to write a letter*

[reileen.livejournal.com]

I'm getting extremely tired of listening to rich, powerful people claim that poor, disempowered people are "lazy" and "losers."

I haaaaatethis line of rationale. Do people not have basic human empathy?! I'm a spoiled brat who grew up in a mostly white suburb just outside of Chicago in a close-to-upper-middle-class family, and even I know better than that! I guess it still hits personal to me, though, because my family back home in the Philippines are pretty poor, and my family sends money home every month to help pay for various things, and we used to fund my cousins' college education over there too.

Doesn't stop my dad from sometimes making comments about the homeless people who populate the turnoff from Cicero Ave. onto the Eisenhower Expressway and how they should just walk into McDonald's and get a job, and of course they have all those homeless shelters and food kitchens they can go to, so they're just being lazy...le sigh.