Oh Jeebus - . . . .

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One of the fellow blogsters who The Gadfly respects and reads regularly concurs with The Gadfly's view of the state of shit we're all in as he analyzes a truly dismal story out of Arizona:

There simply are no breaks when you are poor. Everything is more expensive, and you are in the worst position to deal with the additional expense. If you’re poor, you probably live an area with a depressed economy, which means the schools are subpar. You probably live in one of the grocery graveyards (or whatever they are called), which means you not only don’t have access to a variety of healthful foods, but you are paying double for crap at a convenience store. You probably don’t have access to banking and deal with payday lenders and other frauds. On the odd chance you will get a loan, the APR will be astronomical. You can’t afford to shop ahead and buy things in bulk, because you just don’t have the money for the initial outlay, so when you buy toilet paper, you aren’t hitting Costco, you’re paying triple to quadruple price at a Bodega. You probably have to buy shitty appliances and clothes that deteriorate rapidly, and have to replace them constantly simply because they were crap to begin with, and in the long run, spend more money than if you had the capital to buy something decent.

And I could go on and on and on. But let’s not forget the obvious one- if you are poor, you probably don’t have a support system in which someone can watch your kids while you try to, in the term of Republican Paul Ryan Universe, pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. Basically, when you are trapped in this kind of poverty, the only way out is a miracle.

We are a very demented and sad society, and not really very social, but maybe we can help a desperate woman and her kids out. Given how shitty everything is, I’d chalk that up as a win.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/03/27/when-you-are-poor-there-really-are-no-breaks/


And anyone who believes that the Tea Party is the answer --- do humanity a favor --- go play human Frogger in the middle of the nearest interstate freeway at rush hour.



----TFG