Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

I don't want to debate the definition of "need", but we know that 
statistically the working poor and disabled face much higher cost of living 
relatively in the basics like food, shelter, utilities, transportation. Not 
many want to depend on handouts. Things like check cashing stores, rent to 
buy appliances, and payday/title loans rip off those on low income. Low 
income people already pay a much higher proportion of their income for food, 
rent and transportation, and without established credit people pay higher 
prices on everything. Try getting a job without a car in most cities, or 
without affordable child care, or try paying rent when the father is off 
somewhere in jail for minor traffic offenses. I see obesity common among the 
poorest, and a high rate of chronic diseases, but it's hardly because we're 
smarter. Look at what they're eating - USDA commodities and junk that won't 
sell in middle class neighborhoods. Supermarkets have abandoned poor sections 
of town, leaving only junk food in quickie stores.

It's certainly not a matter of pigging out or taking advantage of the system. 
The upper class must blame the victim or else feel guilty about having it so 
easy. We know that the hardest jobs pay the lowest wages, and the easiest 
jobs pay salaries in the stratosphere. Look at CEO salaries and stock options 
if you want to see corruption on a scale the rest of us can't imagine. Those 
who've never lived or worked among the wealthiest class have no idea how easy 
they've got it or how uttlerly incompetent they are at everyday tasks, or how 
they complain about "the servant problem". They are the ones living off the 
work of others. They are really the ones who think the world owes them a 
living, the "gimme" class. That's the way the world works.

That said, one way out is to become more self reliant in food and skills and 
not need the stores and paid help for every little thing. We need an immunity 
to the incessant call to buy all the new! improved! crapola that keeps us in 
debt and keeps us peasants on someone else's land.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/28/2008 at 6:16 PM su do wrote:

>Unfortunately, many people who don't really NEED food stamps get them.
>Our society has turned into a hands out, give me, give me one. Most don't
>appreciate the simpler things of life. We are also a nation of obese
>folks. The abuse of the system has gone rampant and corruption in high
>places has stripped me of faith in the integrity of this nation. Sometimes
>hardtimes brings us back to a more meaningful reality>>>> healthy soil and
>sustainable living!
>
>