Reply #35: I've read through this thread and perhaps there are side [View All]

[tnlefty]

topics that need to be considered. FYI, I live in a community that was mostly rural, surrounded by farms until investors bought the farms either from aging farmers or their heirs. One section very close to me was turned into a golf course with McMansions and then it was extended across the street to make an even bigger connected golf course and gated McMansions.

People in this part of my county and the surrounding....Bradley, Meigs, Polk have seen their jobs disappear. My spouse works for the local electrical cooperative around here that stretches up to the KY line. We never discuss names, but the numbers of people who are on the cut-out lists (gonna pull the meter for non-payment) has increased drastically during the past 5 yrs. The food banks are stressed, and people who had jobs for years now have no jobs. They try to make ends meet by picking up work where the can, but are increasingly stressed and my spouse has told me many stories about 'grown man who has always worked sat across from my desk crying and quietly asking for help'.

People who are struggling also see shit like this:

People who are paid very well at TVA cut corners and the end result in a nasty coal ash spill. No one at TVA is held responsible, nor is that entity paying for it's massive fuck up, we rate payers have the pleasure of doing that.

While so many are struggling and staving off foreclosure or have been foreclosed on already, they see the assholes who caused the meltdown in the first place being bailed out and rewarded with bonuses. And locally it was revealed that the county mayor, Claude Ramsey (R-shithead) spent $89K on office furniture. That money could have done something to move along the project for the homeless, but to middle-classers and those really struggling this is outrageous.

The sweetheart deals extended to VW to locate a plant in this county were outrageous: just one part, they won't pay property taxes on property that taxpayers funded the development of for 30 years. If you're struggling trying to keep a business open here, have laid workers off, an out of work person trying to save to pay your property taxes, this shit pisses people off to no end. Oh, and that was a bi-partisan effort. :puke:

It's my understanding that the TBI has been downtown (Chattanooga) in the offices of building inspectors and then going after builders...again people knew/know they're being screwed. I've had many people in Bradley Co. tell me that the permitting, inspection system there is corrupt as hell, so hopefully the TBI will spend a couple of days there.

Point being, people are struggling, can't always pay what they need to and don't ask for help until they absolutely have to, play the odds, but people from both sides of the spectrum (I don't mean people who are active in a political party) feel they try to do the correct thing, and are still getting screwed.

And yeah, while I didn't ask for help there was a time in my life when we paid our fire subscription fee in installments.

Are there assholes who just try to get out of paying for anything? Yeah. We have a stupid school board member who has advocated for parents not to pay school fees, etc. (Rhonda Thurman) but she doesn't really want the schools adequately funded. Parents who can afford to pay them usually do and do more, but there are families who pay them in installments or can't pay them at all, and it's not because they agree with Thurman, they just can't pay the fees.

Hope this is somewhat clear. It's more complex than the guy is a teabagger, and my volunteer fire dept. could've probably used the $89K that the county mayor spent on fucking office furniture.

There are many more struggling disillusioned people who fee or know that they're being screwed.