Pondering on Fiscal Responsibility and Jumping to Conclusions

[lady_laetitia]

My family has almost 2500 bucks in bills a month, and I am a full time student (read: making no money) Our bills outstrip our income by about 300 dollars a month. We've applied for government help; from the self-same governemtn that is supposedly completely white-biased, have sat for HOURS in cramped DES offices hoping that we could get help buying food and formula for the kids. Nope. Not a dime. Whereas I have seen people of other-than-white backgrounds go in there, speaking fluent English outside the office, come in and pretend like they don't speak English, they don't ahve a job (even though they're driving a new escalade) with 8 kids in tow, and they get complete funding....ON A GREEN CARD!!!

Much of Elf's rant was interesting since it basically boiled down to a complaint against a teacher perpetuating the victimhood of non-whites being refuted by placing the white race in the position of being the victims....

One of the more interesting statements was the one quoted above that I find interesting for several reasons

A. The characterization of the people with 8 kids is exactly the same type of characterization that Elf finds offensive when her teacher uses the same lack of logic in describing white people.

B. People with Green Cards are legal residents that pay taxes just like native born citizens.

C. Judging people on looks is shallow and just as bigoted as the teacher Elf complains about. She makes judgments about these people based on the color of their skin, their vehicle and the number of kids they have and yet she would be appalled if someone made the same kind of judgment about her based on her car and her conversation - (Hey, she's white, has a nice car and only two kids, she's dressed nice and stood around outside talking about going to LA and the costumes she was going to make and then she went in and pretended like she was broke and needed help)

D. Surprisingly enough, simply being $300 short on one's monthly bills does not automatically entitle one to government aid. Government aid is for people who really need it and cannot manage without it. It is for people who try their best and still need help. It really isn't for people who just don't manage their finances well.

A monthly income of $2200 for a family of four is above the national poverty level by quite a bit. That one does not live within one's income is not a reason for others to make up the shortfall. I find myself completely perplexed by this sense of entitlement that so many people have - that the government OWES them something just because they want it.

It is time for Americans to start learning fiscal responsibility - learn to assess their income and make their lifestyle fit their income instead of creating a lifestyle of "I wants" and then hoping someone else will fund it for them.

Fiscal responsibility is paying one's bills before one goes after the frills and if there is no money for frills then forgetting them until there is money for them.

Fiscal responsibility is making sure the basics fit one's income, basics being place to live, food to eat and basic transportation. It may mean living in an apartment instead of renting a house, it many mean eating plain basic food instead of experimenting with exotic foods, it may well mean having only one vehicle instead of two and someone taking the bus.

Fiscal responsibility is not going out and getting everything one could possibly want and then expecting others to pay for it when you can't.

Comments

Does she stilll owe money?

[mute-in-ears.livejournal.com]

'Coz she was out at ren-faire today spending her @$$ off, complete with a visit to the feast hall.

[ladylaetitia.livejournal.com]

Doesn't surprise me - after borrowing from us and not paying us back because she was broke and needed money for diapers she managed to go to an out of state Anime con with new outfits and came home with lots of loot. Being a "a full time student (read: making no money)" has never seemed to slow down her spending on non-essentials :-)

Yes - the debt finally got paid. Her husband took care of it for her about two weeks ago.... but isn't that how all her debts get paid... with someone else fixing it for her?

I suspect it is because they needed something from me in another capacity but at least it finally got paid 20 months or so after the fact...

And it promptly went to the meds needed to keep the dog alive. :-)

[mute-in-ears.livejournal.com]

I feel for you. Most of us from her old life cut our losses where she is concerned and she is of the impression she had nothing to with it. We found out the hard that she gets others to take care of her responsibilites and to pamper her like she was entitled or something. She usually "settles up" by doing something nice for her creditors that costs her 20-40% less than the original debt.

We could tell you all kinds of stories. Email me if you want any of them.

Ride her hard when you need to...or even when you don't...or just let her drift into a rude awakening on her own. It doesn't matter. Now that I've made contact with you anything that happens in your personal relationship with her will be blamed on me.

Best wishes for you and your dogs.

[ladylaetitia.livejournal.com]

She quit everything I am involved in when it got too hard for her to make excuses about why she was not doing what she promised she would do. If they hadn't found an uncashed check I wrote them last year I doubt they would have contacted me and I vastly suspect that if her husband had know she still hadn't paid the debt they would not have called since that check was considerably less than they owed me personally.

Other than nudging her via her LJ about the money and getting less than polite private email in return I haven't seen her since she quit AniZona last August after procrastinating for over 9 months on her responsibilities as chair and then leaving the group to clean up her mess. Apparently her word is not important to her since she broke pretty much every obligation she took on in the time I knew her and didn't seem to care how much trouble or money or hurt she causes to others. Her world revolves around her and the rest of the world doesn't matter unless she can use it for something to her advantage. Asking around she has pretty much run through her rennie friends, SCA friends, SF friends and a large part of her Anime friends.... maybe she will grow up some day and realize what she is doing and hopefully it will be before she passes this attitude on to her two children.



but I am not holding my breath - she has the "victim" mentality down pat

[(Anonymous)]

Guilty on rennie friend, gaming friend, and co-worker.

Glad you got out with your sanity.

Something I posted in Sept of '05

[mute-in-ears.livejournal.com]

Thought you might get a brief chuckle out of this...

http://mute-in-ears.livejournal.com/18257.html?nc=2

Re: Something I posted in Sept of '05

[ladylaetitia.livejournal.com]

I guess something one of us said struck a nerve judging by today's rant :-)

Re: Something I posted in Sept of '05

[mute-in-ears.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I think you sank her battleship.