"None of my parents worked." "I'd rather die than work."

[Courtesy Flush]

Run time: 03:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTZys8hsjhc   Posted on YouTube: November 03, 2010 By YouTube Member: IDFA Views on YouTube: 10301   Posted on DU: December 09, 2011 By DU Member: Courtesy Flush Views on DU: 2882

 
Myth: Busted!

[provis99]

1. the very definition of a degenerate family.

[freshwest]

9. They've only had the happiness that their money and position could buy, I can see...

Them rehearsing the line of Blanche DuBois:

'...I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.'

It looks like they are going to learn about this part of life.

We all do.

[freshwest]

2. They are not broke. They haven't sold the house, car and furniture yet. They'll be fine.

And if you're gonna be broke, that looks like a nice region to do it in and they haven't exactly been rounded up for vagrancy yet. I find this hard to believe, it might be a joke. They're all that old and no comprehension of how to make ends meet?

[fasttense]

7. Yes, they have sold their house.

She said she owed the land lady 2,200. What they seem to have is a very upscale apartment rental with some of their very nice furnishings.

The rich are different from you and me. They don't cook, they don't drive, they don't clean up or pick up after themselves. They don't know how to maintain a house that's why the formerly rich frequently live in rented apartments. They don't even know how to change a light bulb or do their laundry. Oh they could learn, but it must be very frustrating to have to learn all those tasks when you are over 50.

I feel no sympathy for them. They should have taken stock of their circumstances when they sold their home and property or borrowed against it. They had to have some amount of money or they could not have rented such a plush apartment. That house and land was worth millions. If they sold it and lived frugally they could have lived very comfortably for years. But they made no effort to cut back and so they find themselves on the verge of homelessness.

[freshwest]

8. I doubt they will ever become homeless in the sense that people have in the Americas. They live in a

Social democracy, and unless they are unable to manage even their benefits there, they should get by. Thanks for explaining more details there, although there was nothing in their lives to show them how to take the practical steps you describe; they lived almost completely in the past and found comfort in that.

It seems, that never having been challenged in their earlier lives, they accomplished nothing of value and learned nothing. They lived on faith that someone else would take care of them. I know people who are the same and are religious, they never seem to have a grasp of the here and now, nor do they worry much about anything. They are quite generous to others, never expecting to want themselves, never going into details.

Conservative pundits find these people infinitely worthy, call them producers because of their balance sheet, now former balance sheet. But by lack of that balance sheet they have been calling for the culling of the poor as parasites, worthless mouths, etc. I think in its own way, this film is about increasing that perception that all humans are the same.

It doesn't do much good to hate these unfortunates, and I do call them unfortunate because they only consumed, and were never able to build up the strength of spirit to see them through hard times. Women such as these, on the streets of America, whining their complaints, would be the laughing stock of the pundits. Yet they are all humans, just as surely as those in the teabaggers who are addled and scream abuse. They do not seem to hate anyone, though, and may have enjoyed showering gifts on others.

The human being is by flesh and mind, vulnerable, foolish and in need of assistance at almost all points of their lives, and money can and did buy assistance for these women almost all of their lives. They possibly have lived off the organized banditry of their ancestors, perhaps slaughtering the ancestors of their servants. But it will all equal out in the end. What interesting times we live in.

I have been enjoying your posts here and there lately. Thanks for answering with your thoughts.

[Journeyman]

3. The Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx was set up to house the "nouveau poore" of an earlier age. . .

Opened in 1924, the Andrew Freedman Home in the Bronx was established to provide a place where formerly wealthy people who'd suffered reverses of fortune through no fault of their own could live out their lives in the fashion to which they'd become accustomed. It's benefactor, a wealthy man who barely escaped ruin in the panic of 1907, believed that reduced circumstances were harder on the rich than on the poor.

There's some validity to the thought. Those who've lived a life of want are certainly better prepared and more knowledgeable about securing their immediate needs. They are certainly more attuned to the situation and more readily recognize its dangers and opportunities. But such "advantages," if they can be so described, are fleeting at best, as people quickly adapt to match their circumstances, and left to their own devices even the formerly wealthy can be successfully poor. As is said in certain quarters, "It ain't brain surgery."

The Andrew Freedman Home: A Retirement Home Built for the Formerly Wealthy

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/23/realestate/streetscapes-andrew-freedman-home-retirement-home-built-for-formerly-wealthy.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

[IronicNews]

10. Fascinating! Thanks for posting!

[niyad]

4. "none of my parents worked"??? how many does this individual have?

[SteveM]

5. "Blame it on your Daddy, all five of 'em!" nt

[deutsey]

6. Bums on the plush (Utah Phillips)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9FRFaWSS_c

[baldguy]

11. Maybe she can take Newt's advice and be a janitor.

These are the kind of people the GOP calls "job creators". They're really parasites.