The Richy Richs of this world do NOT make the best politicians ....

[MindMover]

How One GOP Plutocrat Helped Make 20,000 Kids Homeless

There are 20,000 kids sleeping in homeless shelters in New York City, according to the city's latest estimate, a number that does not include homeless kids who are not sleeping in shelters because their families have been turned away. Up to 65 percent of families who apply for shelter don't get in, and their options can be grim.

"Some end up sleeping in subway trains," Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless, tells AlterNet. "Some go to hospital emergency rooms or laundromats. Women are going back to their batterers or staying in unsafe apartments."

Families that make it into shelters are taking longer to leave and move into stable, permanent housing. Asked by reporters why families were staying 30% longer than even last year, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, "... it is a much more pleasurable experience than they ever had before."

“Is it great?" He elaborated a day later in response to outcry over his comments. "No. It’s not the Plaza Hotel ... but that’s not what shelter is supposed to be and that’s not what the public can afford or the public wants.”


http://truth-out.org/news/item/13157-how-one-gop-plutocrat-helped-make-20000-kids-homeless


As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby, "Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me...They think, deep down, that they are better than we are.”

[KansDem]

1. Of course they don't make the best politicians...

That's why they buy them.

[HooptieWagon]

2. Like the Roosevelts and Kennedys?

[MindMover]

3. If your opinion is that the Roosevelt's and Kennedy's were somehow great politicians ...

I have to disagree ...

they set themselves and there 1% friends up so that government became more friendly to the 1%ers ... proven over and over again ...

If you think that the safety nets that have been established by Roosevelt and Kennedy were somehow benevolent then you are not living on SS income ... and using medicaid for your healthcare ...

[pnwmom]

4. The only people I know who think that Roosevelt's safety nets weren't "benevolent"

are teabaggers and libertarians, who think all people are stronger if they go through life without any help.

[MindMover]

5. So you must think that the SS average payout is livable retirement income ...

and I am not a teabagger or libertarian ...

I am a person with my eyes wide open and my head clear of anything stronger than a sasparilla ...

[pnwmom]

6. The average payout these days isn't as high, proportionately, as it used to be.

But I wouldn't hold Roosevelt or even Kennedy responsible for that.

[MindMover]

7. Ok, we agree on SS and most of the so-called safety nets out there ...

and I will agree that Roosevelt nor Kennedy are responsible for the shell game that we have goin on now ....

[pnwmom]

8. And I will agree that the Richie Rich's of the world can make rotten politicians

and even worse leaders.

[HooptieWagon]

9. FDR was elected 4 times, and held the nation through a great depression and world war.

I'm guessing a person would have to be one hell of a polititian to do that.
Teddy busted up the robber-barons..I guess those rich people weren't too happy with him.
And the Kennedys have been politically influential for what...80 years?

[karynnj]

10. FDR was not just relly wealthy, but his family had been wealthy for generations.

Some of the Senators who did the most in legislation were/are wealthy - including people like Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and Frank Lautenberg.

[Marta Steele PR]

11. They are raised to think they are

which begins another generation of plutocrats. But as the recent election should have conclusively demonstrated, the public still has power.

Personally, I don't resent working for a rich boss ... leaves me free to do work like this for authors like Marta. But he justifiably worries about losing my skills and knows you can't buy loyalty. Who who would you rather be?

Karl Marx may have been right about communism, but volume 2 of Das Kapital is just racist. That said, "Workers of the world: Unite!"