Re: Kerry vs Bush
BigDDL....if you notice I put deadbeat in quotes. It was a tongue in cheek way of indicating that the lower 50% of the taxpayers don't pay any taxes...hence the play on deadbeat.<br /><br />Before anyone else gets carried away let me set the record straight. From the age of 6 to 9 I lived on a farm in Eastern Kentucky where my parents tried to make a go of farming. We lived in an old cabin on the property dating from the turn of the century. The summers were nice but the winters were brutal. We literally got our water from a well and used an outhouse (no indoor plumbing). My mother would routinely sweep the snow off our beds before we went to sleep because snow would blow through the cracks in the walls. We would dress in front of the electric oven because the pot belly stove used to heat the cabin couldn't keep up with the drafts. Sound like something from the depression days?....try the early 1970's.<br /><br />We moved around after that and it wasn't much better. My teens were spent in a trailer in South Carolina which burned down in 1982 during my sophomore year of college...taking my parent's meager belongings.<br /><br />I tell you these stories not to extract sympathy but to prove that poverty certainly still exists but I don't have much sympathy for it. Yes, I am very well off by most standards but not that any of it was given to me. I put myself through college by working 80 hours/week during the summers (I still have the paystubs to prove it). <br /><br />I maintain that more taxation isn't the issue... proper fiscal management at a personal and government level is!<br /><br />One of my best friends (now in his late 30's) spent his teen years living in a horse stable eating 39 cents chicken livers every night for several months. He has never made a tremendous income but by saving money from his teens onward he now has enough that he can live comfortably for the rest of his life. If he can do it, ALMOST anyone can (I realize that there are exceptions). If more people listened to Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and others the poverty situation would improve dramatically...FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO HELP THEMSELVES!<br /><br />Yes, the wealthy man should have a 4 course meal. If you read the statistics the average millionaire is self-made. He deserves it.
BigDDL....if you notice I put deadbeat in quotes. It was a tongue in cheek way of indicating that the lower 50% of the taxpayers don't pay any taxes...hence the play on deadbeat.<br /><br />Before anyone else gets carried away let me set the record straight. From the age of 6 to 9 I lived on a farm in Eastern Kentucky where my parents tried to make a go of farming. We lived in an old cabin on the property dating from the turn of the century. The summers were nice but the winters were brutal. We literally got our water from a well and used an outhouse (no indoor plumbing). My mother would routinely sweep the snow off our beds before we went to sleep because snow would blow through the cracks in the walls. We would dress in front of the electric oven because the pot belly stove used to heat the cabin couldn't keep up with the drafts. Sound like something from the depression days?....try the early 1970's.<br /><br />We moved around after that and it wasn't much better. My teens were spent in a trailer in South Carolina which burned down in 1982 during my sophomore year of college...taking my parent's meager belongings.<br /><br />I tell you these stories not to extract sympathy but to prove that poverty certainly still exists but I don't have much sympathy for it. Yes, I am very well off by most standards but not that any of it was given to me. I put myself through college by working 80 hours/week during the summers (I still have the paystubs to prove it). <br /><br />I maintain that more taxation isn't the issue... proper fiscal management at a personal and government level is!<br /><br />One of my best friends (now in his late 30's) spent his teen years living in a horse stable eating 39 cents chicken livers every night for several months. He has never made a tremendous income but by saving money from his teens onward he now has enough that he can live comfortably for the rest of his life. If he can do it, ALMOST anyone can (I realize that there are exceptions). If more people listened to Dave Ramsey, Clark Howard, and others the poverty situation would improve dramatically...FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO HELP THEMSELVES!<br /><br />Yes, the wealthy man should have a 4 course meal. If you read the statistics the average millionaire is self-made. He deserves it.
