Those people standing on street corners with signs: "Anything helps, Bless you"

[rustydog]

All the attempts by some to paint them as the new century's "welfare recipient driving a cadillac", Co-workers claiming they know someone who saw them get into a good looking car and drive to a 300,000.00-dollar home after a day of begging....
Maybe it is true after all. Go to We are the 99%, read their stories and be prepared to have your day ruined.

What about the homeless, the hurting Vets, the terrified poor who do not know if they will be fired tomorrow..People who don't live "paycheck to paycheck, they live day to day". They work hard, and fore go meals so that their loved ones can have what is left...
People in this "Exceptional" nation are starving daily... They are literally dying in the streets and alleys of America, the land of PLENTY ...Drinking a glass of tea for FUCKING DINNER???
Buying fish antibiotics because you cannot afford to go to the doctor?

Sarah, Koch Bros, Eric Fucking Cantor, John Boehner, and all you corporate-humping whores your days are numbered...You are the death panels, we are sick and tired of it and you!

Occupy Wall Street does not have a cohesive message? Really...Really?

[ananda]

1. Alex (Dim)Witt really doesn't get it at all.

That idiotic stepfordbot really gets on my nerves sometimes.

She said to her interviewee: come back when you get it all figured out.

Well, He DID have it figured out. This is society healing itself.

[Zax2me]

2. Really. No cohesive message.

100 different interviews get you 100 different messages.
ABC, MSNBC - CBS - no on-street interview is like another.

[rustydog]

4. We are tired of all this...not a cohesive message?

It can be said a thousand different ways, but like the sit downs in the 60's when black brothers and sisters wanted the world to know they were not going to drink from a different water fountain, sit at a different counter and allow the status quo to remain the status quo one day longer. Their actions spoke volumes. The ORGANIZED message came later.

Don't worry the requisite sound-byte catch-phrases will come out of OWS...they will come later, the message is still being beautifully stated by millions peacefully protesting in cities and towns across America, their presence speaks volumes.

[Uben]

3. There's a guy here with a sign that says......

..."On the road, need help!" He sits at an intersection near the casino here. I have seen him there for the last six months!
Technically, he IS standing on the road, so I guess his sign is correct, in a sense. I have even seen him working in tandem with another guy working shifts of a sort. They must make a lot of money because it has been hotter than Hades the past few months.

[izquierdista]

5. You haven't tried it yourself?

Then you would have some actual data and could compute the ROI and the hourly wage.

[rustydog]

7. Either they make a " lot of money" or they make enough to

keep gas in their cars...Maybe it pays for medication, maybe they make enough, just enough to buy a meal for the day. Some will say it pays for their booze,their drugs.

I have seen these people in blazing heat (without sunscreen) driving rain in t-shirt and no hat, extreme cold and wet conditions .. Obviously, they are too lazy to get a job,right?
all they have to do is get a job, the lazy bastards...right?

My son, daughter-in-law and I were walking to Safeco Field to attend a mariners game after a great lunch in a local pub. She did not finish her meal and got it to go. As we passed Quest Field, two homeless men had one of those signs (anything helps) Joan asked: "Would you like a burger and fries? They thanked her, took it and tore the container open and ATE... Yea, get a job....
While tailgating at Seahawk Games before they closed the area under the viaduct you'd see tailgaters happily feeding the homeless who wandered amongst the throng of tailgaters..what I saw was decent people offering food to obviously hungry homeless people, the homeless did not beg there. Probably the best they have eaten in days, maybe the only meal...

Occupy Wall Street is about this and so much more.

[rustydog]

17. From We are the 99% website

I am now 23 years old.

I’ve been unemployed for 4 years.

No unemployment money. No insurance. No welfare. Nothing. I have rotten wisdom teeth that I can’t get remove because I don’t have the means to pay for them. If I get sick, I’ll have no means to pay for medical expenses.

My Dad had already gone through over 15 part-time jobs by the time he was my age, and landed full-time as a Trucker.

He’s still a truck driver, and will have to work until the day he dies, living paycheck-by-paycheck to pay for the bills on his mobile home, his car, his utilities, his food, and his medical expenses, as he’s been denied for proper health care due to his back and heart problems being ‘pre-existing conditions’.

My Dad doesn’t live in the lap of luxury. He is the most miserable man I have ever seen, and it breaks my heart.

I will have to go down the same path, living paycheck-by-paycheck, working until the day I die, just like him.

Assuming I can ever find work anymore.

My Dad and I are the 99%

[dkf]

6. The message is "my life sucks...what are you going to do about it?"

The problem is there isn't a solution that any one person has that involves changes they can make themselves. It's beyond the individual.

[rustydog]

8. No the message is we are sick and tired of funding your wealthy lifestyle

There is not one whimper of what are you going to do about it, the message is LISTEN to US.

[dkf]

18. No one forces anyone to fund their wealthy lifestyle.

I'm sure you could find the exact same service offered by someone who is struggling if you don't wish to buy or use services from anyone who is successful.

[rustydog]

21. Jumping Jesus Christ! What rock have you been stuck under?

I am not talking about the mom and pop store owner...People who make hundreds of millions, billions of dollars and do not pay one red cent in taxes but my tax dollars go to their Refunds...
People sweat every fucking day in their jobs making the company they work for successful. A CEO sends jobs to China an he/she gets 40 million a year.
Yes, We do fund their fucking lifestyle. They suck off the teat of our labor.

[dkf]

23. But the only thing you have control over is how you lead your life.

If you don't wish to enrich others you can always find a way to have it so.

As to complaining about where taxes go and how they are collected...the entire tax code is a mass of unfairness. I wish we could scrap most of it and be minimalist and simple.

[roody]

15. wrong again

[dkf]

19. How so?

[Arctic Dave]

9. The overall message is this, The system is corrupted and needs to be fixed or thrown out.

Politics
Financing
Business
Defense
Enviromental
Education
Infrastructure

All of these and more have been corrupted or destroyed from greed.

Feel free to expand the list.

[slackmaster]

10. Some of them are professional panhandlers

There's a couple who have been hanging out at the corner of Camino Del Rio South and Texas Street in San Diego for more than two years. The man is supposedly a veteran; he once told me he lost his DD-214 and hasn't been able to get another copy so he can't get any benefits.

They always have one or two signs, and the signs change with the season. Last December when the San Diego River crested and flooded out parts of the valley, they changed their sign to "Lost everything in the flood. Please help."

:-)

[rustydog]

12. Give me an effing break...PROFESSIONAL Panhandler

So do you store your soul in the basement when you leave the house...when did you stop caring about a fellow human being? I bet you saw him at the Jaguar dealership last week too.

I bet you don't give "professional beggars" money because they'll just get drunk on the dollar you might give them even though it is THEIR money once it is given.

[slackmaster]

13. I don't give money to people who obviously aren't doing things they could to help themselves

Tale a 'lude, rustydog. There's no need for you to attack me personally here.

[rustydog]

14. How do you know this isn't the only way they can come up with?

I have interviewed people applying for work in my department who have been out of work for over a YEAR,
Obviously they are too fucking lazy to you.
Your attitude and the same attitude of too many others is why OWS has taken off.
Read We are the 99% then see if you can find your compassion packed in a box you sent to the landfill.

[rustydog]

20. Maybe they are lazy...Just maybe "they" are like this lady in: We are the 99% website

Self employed making 60K. Injured-no insurance. Then economy TANKS. Lose house, job, savings.

I am the 99%

Oh yeah, then I got cancer.

[roody]

16. I wonder what percent of the masses of beggars in CA are pros?

None that are sleeping outdoors.

[JPZenger]

22. Yes, sometimes

We have a guy who makes a living panhandling at a busy intersection. The director of our local homeless shelter has gone up to him multiple times and offered him a place to stay, free meals, a job, etc. He always turns him down.

[mmonk]

11. Recommended.