X-Message-Number: 21801
Date: Sun, 25 May 2003 04:57:19 -0700
From: James Swayze <>
Subject: Brainless comment about welfare
References: <>

> Message #21792
> From: "aschwin de wolf" <>
> References: <>
> Subject: Re: Defense Spending
> Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 10:28:43 -0400
>
> > Saddam's revenge is a potential problem, Bush's policy is another: The
> > massive military expenses in a bad economics time may send the US the way
> the USSR
> > ended: In a catastrophic economics, social, and financial crash. The US$
> has
> > lost 20% in some months, a similar fall before the end of the year could
> send
> > the money in a spiraling downward crash.
>
> Defense spending as a percentage of GDP is not that high. If cuts need to be
> made it should be in other areas (like welfare).


Excuse me!? Who the hell are you to say such a brainless and callous thing? Have
you ever needed

welfare? I highly doubt it! If you had you might think twice about mouthing off 
like you just

did. Don't ever get seriously injured and happen not to be a millionaire or have
iron clad

irrevocable health insurance because, my ignorant friend, you'll get to learn 
what it is like to

be held in contempt by idiots like yourself that haven't got a goddamn clue what
true suffering
and poverty are all about.


I do happen to know what it's like. I'm treated like a third class citizen by 
clueless, myopic,

shortsighted greedy bastards like you every day. Why? Because they think that 
the goddamn .002 a

year that comes out of their pay to keep me alive should be better spent 
elsewhere. Why don't you

just be honest and tell your representative to arrange for a new bill you can 
call "the final

solution" so all you welfare hawks will never have to pay that .002 a year ever 
again?!


I had the misfortune to have broken my neck at an age too young to have been 
established with

health and life insurance. For this I get the privilege of trying to live on 
$541.00 a month

while watching for the next cut in services because some politician thinks 
welfare should be cut

to pay for defense or the next failed tax cut for the rich to hopefully 
stimulate the economy.

It's the least able to defend themselves, unable to afford proper legal help, 
that get the cuts.


I don't think you have a clue what it's like to have to live like I do. Don't 
worry though you're

about to get enlightened. First of all I am paralyzed from the shoulders down. I
have survived

numerous dangerous surgeries, countless urinary tract infection resulting in the
loss of one

kidney and contraction of diabetes, the worst case in the world of a rare bone 
disease and not

least of all forced abject poverty. But do you want to know what the worst of it
has been? Having
to endure the mindless attitudes of people like you.


You remind of the father of a girlfriend I had in college that told me he didn't
want his

daughter hanging a around a cripple that sucked him dry for welfare dollars. I 
even have family

members that would to my face argue that social security should be abolished 
because they didn't

think they'd ever get their money back out of it. They could stand there and say
that but offer

no solution for what would happen to me. Oh yeah wait I remember, I'm supposed 
to beg charity
from churches. I'M AN ATHEIST!


I'd be the first person to get me _off of welfare_ if I only could but every 
attempt I have made

has been sabotaged by some or other government rule set in place to make sure 
'welfare

recipients' don't double dip. I'm not allowed to own stocks, bonds, etc. or 
property I don't live

on, more than one vehicle, certainly nothing like a boat or airplane. I'm not 
allowed to earn

over $716 a month. I'm not allowed to possess assets totaling $2000.00 including
anything that

could be sold and cash in savings or checking. I should not be tying this right 
now on my PC

because it and my TV/VCR and payday on the first of the month would put me in 
violation. I
suppose I should sell them both and shut myself off from the world.


If I do try and earn anything the more I earn the more gets taken away. It's a 
zero sum gain. But

why not earn rather than take? Because the more that gets taken away to offset 
what I earn the

closer I get to receiving zero SSI. I have to receive at least one dollar SSI or
I don't get

state Medicaid, WELFARE to you. Without that I must pay for my caregivers 
myself, also the 20-30

% (in actuality much more do to arbitrary and inadequate Medicare allowables) 
that Medicare won't

pay for medical services (doctors visits, lab tests, hospitalization, medical 
supplies such as

catheters, gauze, tape, urinary supplies, medical equipment such as hospital 
bed, floatation

mattress, patient lift, wheelchair and more I don't care to list) and finally 
prescription drugs
(Medicare does not yet pay for prescription drugs).


To start with my prescripton drugs cost $1200 per month! My wheelchair was 
$19,000. Hospital bed,

mattress, patient lift are rented for several hundred dollars a month (don't 
have exact figure

this very minute). The various medical supplies needed monthly come to around 
six hundred to a

thousand dollars a month depending what rotation of supplies needs replacing, 
e.g. one catheter

(5 cents worth of extruded plastic) $18.00, night time drain bag $35.00, etc. 
etc.


My caregivers split a mere $1300.00 a month, was only $200 when I was first 
injured and only one

caregiver allowed then. They are required to care for me 24 hours a day 7 days a
week and no paid

vacations. You do the math, are they paid a fair wage? NO! This does not provide
adequate care

either. There's too much to do for only two people and so many things never get 
done. I minimize

calling upon them by staying in bed  every day rather than getting up each day 
and going out. I

don't any longer hope for help on projects such as setting me up for doing 
artwork and more I

don't care to mention. A rough calculation for a more reasonable, not slavery, 
caregiver employee

situation would be as follows: 3 people working eight hour shifts for 5 days and
2 people working

12 hour shifts for weekends would approximate a 40 hour work week for 3 
individuals and 24 hour

work week for two part timers. If they were paid a decent living wage, say 
$1400.00 a month for

the full timers and half that for the part timers it would come to $67,200.00, a
decent income

for any two people. However, for me to be adequately cared for and on my own 
with no government

help $67,200.00 would be quite a deficit to overcome before earning even enough 
for normal living

expenses, house payment, utilities, insurance, food, laundry, etc., etc. Now add
to that a 20k

wheelchair amortized over 3-4 years, the average life span of a wheelchair. Then
add to that 50k

for a vehicle outfitted for disability amortized over 7-10 years. Then add to 
that the drugs,

medical supplies, hospitalizations, doctors visits and on and on. Remember, I 
cannot get ordinary
health insurance with so many pre existing conditions.


Why did I slip in these calculations for what it would cost for me to be off 
"welfare"? Because

as I said I have tried many times but long before I could ever reach a yearly 
income of nearly

160k (the amount I'd need if you were paying attention above) per year I would, 
due to the

draconian government rules -- rules put in place by "let's cut welfare to pay 
for defense"

morons, be cut off of medical coverage's and caregiver pay and all the rest and 
not be able to
survive, let alone work.


In 1982 I won a lawsuit for an eye injury that occurred before I got paralyzed 
that blinded my

right eye. I got 42k and an immediate problem. What to do with the money? 
According to the rules

I was supposed to report it or go to prison. It was required that I go off of 
benefits and spend

down the money by living off it to below the then $1500.00 limit. But that was 
not enough, no not

by a long shot. It seems that my punishment for having the good fortune was that
after the spend

down I'd have to go on probation for six months, which of course would leave me 
with nothing to

live on for those six months. Instead I bought a house. Funny thing though, no 
one volunteered

the information that I could avoid the spend down if I bought a house to live 
in. They couldn't

keep me from owning a house I lived in, just any I could have used for 
investment... investment

that could have led to being self sufficient long ago and not costing you your 
precious .002 per
year!


What the welfare hawks don't realize is that their rules prevent people from 
being tax payers

rather than tax drains. If they'd allow people to make whatever they could 
through work or

investing, not even reaching full self sufficiency, and still be able to receive
their medical

they would reduce significantly the drain that they are. In this way with wise  
investment

counseling or even guided investment for the less mentally competent they could 
eventually become

self sufficient and no longer be a drain at all!! What would my 42k be today if 
I could have

invested in Microsoft in 1982? I'll tell you where. I'd be a multimillionaire 
and at least 10
years ago been able to have gone completely off WELFARE!


So don't come to me with brainless comments about cutting welfare, you won't get
a sympathetic

ill informed ear. I am too damned well informed thank you very much! It is you 
that is sadly ill

informed. Perhaps you should look into ways to put to work an ignored asset. 
Talk about an
economic stimulus package!

James
--
Cryonics Institute of Michigan Member!
The Immortalist Society Member!
The Society for Venturism Member!

MY WEBSITE: http://www.geocities.com/~davidpascal/swayze/

Signature Memetic Virus--The worst enemy of those who now or will need medical 
care is the

politician and proselytizing religious fanatic who proscribes what doctors are 
allowed to

prescribe and research, with the consent of their patients. Those who understand
this are

strongly encouraged to modify this to fit their personality, and add this to 
their signature

file, and organize to recover our freedom from Big Brother. For those who wait 
until they are

sick, it will be too late. Those who suffer from diseases which might have been 
cured by fetal

tissue research or schedule 1 drugs banned by Big Brother, have the right to 
hold accountable

those who sat on their hands or worse, deferred their responsibility for 
personal and humanity's

survival to useless gods and pontificating religious quacks, while they remained
ill and dying.

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