Quote Originally Posted by birdgirl73
Breuk, I generally find you an intelligent man, and I know you respect me, too. But your logic here scares me. The idea that just because you don't own property yourself means you shouldn't donate to causes that work against poverty/housing is just wacky. You probably also say things like "I shouldn't have to pay school taxes because I don't have a child." A lot of people believe this, too, sadly, but, thankfully, our Supreme Court had a deeper understanding, recognizing that everyone benefits from an educated population and not just those with children.

It's precisely the same way with helping provide housing. People other than homeowners benefit from that in the same way. In lowered crime. In lowered social spending on the recipients. In moving those people into situations where they can become solid, contributing citizens instead of welfare cases. I think in your heart you know this. You just don't like Jimmy and would be violently opposed to anything you associated with him, which is fine and at least more logical than your other reasoning. My intuition tells me that, as a proud New Yorker, at least a fraction of your dislike for Carter, too, stems from an assumption that Southern-sounding people are less intelligent than northeasterners. Perhaps I'm wrong; I hope I am. But I've run up against far too many New Yorkers who assume lack of intellect when they hear a Southern dialect not to be suspicious about this. (I thoroughly enjoy disabusing them of that notion, as you can probably imagine.)

If you don't want to give to anti-poverty causes or causes you associate with Mr. Carter, you certainly shouldn't do that. Just think about basing your motivation on not doing so on something other than the fact that you're not a homeowner yourself.

No, I am not "anti-Southern". In fact, I like the culture, accents, etc. I think that the hard-working people that made this country great are very much present in the South. I'm a "Yankee", but if it wasn't so hot I'd move to Georgia.

I was laid off in the 1970's, from a municipal job, and replaced with a minority person, functionally illiterate, that was hired with federal money ("CETA"). I trained this man - and when the government didn't help New York City during it's fiscal crisis, I had to go on unemployment for 64 weeks. I did not go on welfare, ever, and never will. I'd scrub floors and wash dishes before I would do this. Besides, they wouldn't qualify me for welfare. Even though I have a vision impairment, rather serious, I'm not qualified for SSI, either.

The first thing that has to be implemented is the concept that race-based programs are discriminatory. It is "class" that is the issue, not race. There are many poor whites, and I've been one of them. I grew up poor. I am not going to give my hard-earned money to people that have dug themselves into a hole with kids that they can't afford, and crave unneeded luxuries that I have not been stupid enough to charge to a credit card.

No, it's not discrimination against the "South", or anyplace else. I also have stopped my donations to the United Way, which they sponsor at my job. The brochures alone are enough to make you sick, when you look at the people that they consider "needy". Show me people that REALLY have had bad luck, or disabilities, and I'd be the first one to contribute. It's really absurd when they're paying for immigrants to live and go to school in Manhattan - when even many upper-middle class Americans cannot afford to live there. When they graduate, and become a boss, who do you think they're going to hire? Not me, that's for sure. They'll almost always hire their own kind. Sorry, this has really gotten my goat over the past few decades. I've had more jobs than I'd care to talk about, collected unemployment three times, and know from the "school of hard knocks" who and what I should put my charity behind.

Have a good one!