Re: OT; What are the elderly going to do?

I for one commend this elderly couple for sitting in the cold instead of running to the government. If they get cold enough and learn a little humility, they'll eventually ask for help or they will be cold by their own choice.

I for one would burn every piece of furniture in my house before I asked anyone for help. Whatever happened to being embarrassed to be on welfare or government assisstance? I also commend Old Ford Mechanic for looking out for them and getting neighbors to help. Thats the way it should be. The government should be a last resort, not the first option as many of you think. I'll bet Old Ford and a few neighbors will not only get the heat on, but will also contact a few family members, they'll have the local church members check in on them with a hot meal and conversation, someone will eventually help sort out a few finances to keep the heat on all winter. All without any government program that will cost all of us ten times the money to implement with one tenth the results Old Ford & Co can provide.

Part of the problem of todays society is that all responsibilities have been shed by everyone because now the government will do it all for free. Kids don't take care of parents in their old age. Neighbors don't help each other. Churches get a black eye if they offer to help. Some of you people and your responses just show how far this nation has come from being self-reliant individuals who give to those in need to a bunch of dependents who take what they can get away with because they don't have to answer to anyone.
Free prescriptions, heating assistance, tax reductions for the elderly. Where do you people think the money comes from?
The government is nothing more than you and me!!
The government is nothing more than your own neighbors. Only people today don't have to look you in the eye and ask for your help with their hat in hand and be thankfull to you or responsible for how they spend what they receive. Whats more, people today don't even ask for help from the government, they demand help from the government (you and me)and they are so bold as to say they "deserve" or are "entitled" to your money via programs and assistance.
How would you feel if you came home from a hard days work and your sitting at your supper table with your hungry kids with a meal purchased by your hard labor and someone knocked on your door and DEMANDED you fill his fist with cash because he's wandered around all day doing nothing and now he's cold and hungry?
We are a generous people here in the US and will help when asked, but I have a big problem with people who think I owe them everything via the government just because they don't live within their means or waste their paycheck on non-essentials and always make poor life choices.
Lets help these people help themselves instead of making them one more pair of dependents sucking on the hind teat of our government.

Old Ford, can you identify with any character in the following?

GENTLEMAN #1

At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge,it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and Destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.

SCROOGE

Are there no prisons?

GENTLEMAN #1

Plenty of prisons,' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

SCROOGE

And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation?

GENTLEMAN #2

They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not.

SCROOGE

The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?

GENTLEMAN #1 & #2

Both very busy, sir.

SCROOGE

Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course. I'm very glad to hear it.

GENTLEMAN #2

Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude, a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?'

SCROOGE

Nothing!

GENTLEMAN #1

You wish to be anonymous?

SCROOGE

I wish to be left alone. Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned -- they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.

GENTLEMAN #2

Many can't go there; and many would rather die.

SCROOGE

If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that.

GENTLEMAN #1

But you might know it,' observed the gentleman.

SCROOGE

It's not my business. It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!

(Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge returned his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.)

This last year I had some medical bills for things that I have been putting off and they blew up this year. These, compared to most, are fairly small ticket items. I am self-employed and self-insured, so they drained our savings anyway.

Winter has always been a very tight time for us financially. We just hunker down and make it through. This winter has been tighter than usual. So I made a big effort to see if anyone I knew needed anyone to do ANYTHING for them. Some did, most didn't but promised to ask around. What troubled me most was that quite a few wanted to tell me where I could go for a government handout.

My parents were divorced when I was a kid. My father got tired of child support payments and left the state. My mother needed back surgery. Well, we were on "welfare" for exactly three months before she could get back to work. Even while she was home convalescing, she took a telemarketing job with a local company selling double pain replacement windows (this was in the late 70s). I know that taking these handouts for even that long grated on her. Well, years later she told me something I always have remembered. Whenever someone gives you something for nothing, there are ALWAYS strings attached, even if they are invisible.

This subject just touched a nerve and had to add my 2 cents.

Christopher