Open Thread

Is it down again?

donatella, I’ll let Lech dress his wounds vs. me pouring sea salt on it. but at 1500, I’ll bust out my Mr T look to rub it in.

Rob, please. Obviously only a family with many children/family members, is going to get a 3+ bedroom apartment. Because they need it. You want to argue that poor people shouldn’t have lots of kids, fine, I half agree with you, but the fact is there are lots of families with a lot of kids or dependents, and they are human beings with needs and one of those needs is living in a place fit for humans, not cramming tons of people in spaces not big enough for them. We don’t punish innocent children for being born by forcing them to live in slum conditions. There are too many people living like that in this city now. I’d like to think my tax dollars can do better than that. For all the “people have to make sacrifices” talk, I’d love to find anyone who says that who is willing to do it themselves. You wouldn’t.

Benson, have a heart. Food stamps are a lifeline for people. Earned income tax credit? Big whoop. It’s a once a year credit that doesn’t amount to much when it comes to putting food on the table on a daily basis. Rob is right on that one. Who’s going to suffer? Children, seniors, those who cannot put food on the table without food stamps.

Don’t know if the OT will ever update, but Gold just broke 1400 despite strengthening dollar. Central banks are using this as a currency hedge and for the Indian holiday of Devali, gold purchases were up 20-25% of their usual rate.

“I will know that the federal government is getting serious about entitlement reform and closing our deficit when two programs are eliminated: food stamps and section 8 vouchers.”

This is so far down the list of things to work on. We need to first gut middle class entitlements, not those for the poor.