You quote me the heritage foundation as a source for your anti-liberal inflated numbers? are you kidding? - next you'll quote Rush as a source

. I'll concede that there are plenty of kids that have part time min-wage jobs. Which i'm sure is where those numbers come from: Daddy makes $90k- kid brings in his clothes money- and now all of a sudden the poor aren't quite as poor. Get me the numbers on those who are supporting their household on min-wage, and we'll talk... In the meantime- i'll give you a personal example:
my mother supported my family of 4 on min-wage in the mid 80's when my dad cut out-She was college educated in one of those degrees that isn't marketable w/o graduate work...Did she have options? Of course, but she also didn't have room to breath- every day was another gut check and i've never seen somebody deserve better-Something she didn't get until we grew up and were more self-supportive- but there were those 6 years of hell-and another 5 of being real broke- and that's not exaggerating- you obviously have never seen someone working harder than is healthy- and nothing but fear that she's going to be on the streets w/ 3 kids. None of your fears of a furlough can match that. It breaks my heart to remember it- it also makes me proud.
You speak from the arrogance of never having been hungry -It's unfathamable to you how it could happen-(and no, spending your dorm food money on beer doesn't count (!) that's just good solid priorities

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You talk like someone who, b/c he's alive and noone gets out of life easy, that is convinced your life has been 'hard'... you've deserved all your successes.... you've earned them... c'mon... get over yourself. It's funny how i feel i appreciate the opportunities this country provides more than people who had 10 times the opportunities, and half the barriers that i did. Yet i'm nothing but grateful and humble. I recognize that it gets worse than my life by a long shot. How can you not? Yet you don't...it's puzzling. How about you practicing some of that humility the church teaches, instead of the hypocrisy?
There's another world-- one where the environment is not quite as conducive to success as you assume it is. Do i feel sorry for me or anyone who grows up broke? No. But i'll tell you that til i'm blue in the face that this is not a EQUAL OPPORTUNITY country- b/c the education is not equal across income levels- the environment to learn is not equal- You got to play sports- i got to hold down a job to help w/ the rent... at age 10. You guys complain about a furlough. I'm lucky that i was first generation and only temporarily broke- so i had positive people around me- but i knew so many good good people who just didn't know how to be successful-- no faith that their work would pay off....and every day a self-fulfilled prophecy. So what do we do-- just let it keep devolving or help? Keep fighting poverty... there's no reason everyone can't have enough. NONE. And this is where it gets ironic- b/c i believe in personal responsibility more than you do.
But part of that personal responsiblity is the deep need to participate in government and hold accountable both corporations and government when they stack the deck against the working middle class and poor. (let that sink in... )
To that end, you still haven't answered my legitimate concern of the taxpaying public subsidizing health care for WAL-MART. Corporations accomplish a lot- but to think they don't need oversight to stop them from the corruptions of power is ridiculous. Answer that w/o your obvious bias and we'll talk again... until then-- you have simply lived in another world-- and your opinion is not that important to me.
me-- i don't forget where i came from- and i won't forget the problems the working poor have to deal with.