🚀 go-pugleaf

In dc.biking wrob <wrob@erols.com> wrote:
> Eternal Nay-sayer wrote:
>
>> Let me make this PAINFULLY clear: I worked my ass off for a bunch of
>> years to get away from the threat of poverty. I didn't get any
>> special breaks, I didn't get any snazzy scholarships, and it took me a
>> lot of pain for a lot of years to get as far as I have. Here's the
>> important part: I did not do this to benefit folks who aren't interested
>> in working to better themselves. If poor folks from the slums want a
>> house in my neighborhood, they can go get this thing called a "job". If
>> they don't want their kids to end up in the slums, they can make damn
>> sure their kids get something called an "education", so their kids can
>> get a job that does not involve the phrase "You want fries with that?".

> Say WHAT? You worked your ass off all your life so... you could live
> with other people who spent their time working their ass off? And so you
> wouldn't have to live next to your not-so-similarly-inspired relatives?

You got it! I pay my mortgage so my family and I can live in a nicer part
of town with other productive members of society. My children can go to
better schools, with future doctors, engineers, and businessmen
(instead of future gang-bangers, drug pushers, crack hos and John
Does). And if a "less-desireable element" (panhandlers, druggies,
whatever) decide to camp out in my front yard, DC's Finest are more than
happy to give 'em a free ride to someplace else. 

I earned the right to live here. (OK, regardless of "right", I earned the
money to live here.) I busted ass because I wanted to be more than my
no-account deadbeat relatives who whine about the government while
they're waiting for their checks. And I made it, as do most people
willing to work for the future (instead of whine about the present).

If you want to live in the same neighborhood as my worthless relatives,
you're welcome to do so... you'll be amazed at how cheap housing is,
mainly because nobody in their right mind wants to live there. If you
want to buy into scattered-site housing for your neighborhood and let
them live there, more glory to you. But do not assume I want these
losers moved to my neighborhood. 

I'll welcome them with open arms when they get their lives together and
are ready to buy into the neighborhood with their own money, but until
that time, I (and all the other people here who, as you so contemptuously
view it) work their asses off to stay here) don't want them.

>> > I do think that the way it is implemented now - concentrating large numbers
>> > of unhappy people into miserable settings - is not doing anyone a whole lot
>> > of good.
>>
>> You could make the same arguement about prisons. Lots of unhappy people
>> concentrated into miserable settings, not doing anyone a whole lot of
>> good. Personally, I'm not going to make an arguement for releasing these
>> people into society, because frankly, society is better off for having
>> these people (both the poor and the prisoners) pidgeon-holed into their
>> own special little enclaves.

> I thought you were in favor of eliminating public housing.

No. Even Jesus said "The poor will always be with you". If you work, and
still can't afford to put a roof over your head (and the heads of your
family), I believe we (as a society) should help out with housing. And I
believe private charities have an important role here, perhaps more
so than government. (Believe it or not, I do not hate the poor... I 
work with Habitat for Humanity and other organizations with similar
goals in my spare time.)

But I also strongly belive that if people with money want to move into a
neighborhood that historically has never had a welfare presence, because
it's a neighborhood that is populated entirely by people who can afford
to be there, they should have the right (both as affected property owners
and as tax-paying voters) to not have their tax dollars used to subsidize
the people they're trying to escape from imported into their 
neighborhood. 

> BTW, you forgot to add the comfortably well-off.

I won't argue that... do you have a point?