Rambling Rant: Unfairness of living in the US and being childless!

[pyrehawk]

“You are so lucky to be making all that money; when I was your age, I was making ½ that and raising three children.” Does anyone else’s mother throw this in their faces? I do not want to turn this into a war between folks with kids and folks without. I just want to decry against the unfairness of how the system works against those of us who have

Comments

[missauria]

Your numbers for w/kiddos are wrong. I make ~30K a year before taxes. After taxes and insurance for Bit and I (we don't qualify for medicaid, and wouldnt take it if we did, when I made 14K a year I still paid for our insurance),I bring home ~1900 a month. Bit's daycare is 128 a week. EIC (the low income credit w/kids) has a cap at 27000 a year for salary. We didn't qualify, I make ~800 after taxes a year too much. We don't get food stamps- I dont know if we would qualify or not, I've never tried.

You've got more integrity than most.

[pyrehawk]

I don't know whether you would qualify for food stamps or not - and my numbers aren't universal - just based on me and my mom - with a very loose translation of 1970s/1980s salary information to today's - only based on GS-Pay Scales. Doubtful if that is even scientific.

And PS - you fall under the category of "Unfair!" because you do make a spit too much for the arbitrary bucket that IRS determined.

Sorry to include all moms in my rant - I guess I just got up in arms by a few examples of system abusers, add to that my mother's habit of lording everything and anything over me that she can (with or without backup) and I'm in a foul mood.

From Wendy:

[anonymous]

Gotta make this so I'm not anonymous anymore I guess...
Anyway, my opinion on taxes and welfare (from someone with 3 children whose husband only makes 32,000 a year) - no one- absolutely no one should get back more money in taxes than they actually paid in- it's just another form of welfare. And I would miss the chunky tax return I use to pay off debt every year, but imagine how much money the government would save too. On welfare- the worst thing the US ever did was hand over money to people to buy their own food- it's far too abused. The solution: Open food pantries and "soup kitchens" all over the country with the money spent on food stamps and not only feed people, but eliminate allowing people to buy drugs with welfare subsidies, and CREATE MORE JOBS for those of us who like to work for a living. Just a few thoughts...

Response to Wendy and all readers

[pyrehawk]

I must be fair - that post was residual from a late night discussion that got my blood boiling - and for other reasons, my mother is my favourite punching bag/scape-goat

From Wendy:

[anonymous]

I agree that it is possible to use the system as it was intended. Chris and I received a lot of help when he was in school and I made 5.75 an hour working full-time with two children. But when he began working, we no longer needed assistance and began taking care of ourselves. So it's not that I'm against using welfare when needed, I'm just against abusing welfare. Sounds like your mom was very determined to get on her own feet- my mother too had to pull herself up by her bootstraps and worked hard to do so. What is wrong with women these days that pop out 8 kids in a row and live on welfare?