Anonymous wrote:^^^would just solicit more

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for posting this, OP! I've been struggling with how to explain the difference between a democrat and a republican to my five year old, and now I can simply read your post and explain that republicans are ignorant, selfish people who only care about themselves. Thanks again!

Republican here. Not all Republicans are as self-absorbed as this OP is. In fact, I would bet this poster would consider himself/herself an Independent - not a Republican at all.
There are some of us Republicans - many, in fact, - who care deeply for those who are struggling to make ends meet. There are those of us who volunteer for Meals on Wheels, or at a local soup kitchen, or at a local school providing tutoring services (for free). There are those of us who donate money and goods to non-profits in order to help others who are not as fortunate. Many of us Republicans don’t have the HHI that others do, but find the money and the time to help others.
Don’t let this poster serve as representative of Republicans - or any party - for that matter. S/he is in a league all his/her own. And, none of us want to join him/her.

Not to mention Republicans donate more to charity than Democrats who are waiting for the government to take care of things. I'm registered as Green so it's not like I'm siding with one party or another.

I started off life as a child of an upper middle class family and ended my childhood as the child of an upper lower class family. Maybe lowest of the middle class. Dad gave up his stressful, success driven, cut throat, executive position to become a civil servant. There wasn't money for community college let alone a 4 year school and I'm learning disabled and not a great student, so there weren't any scholarships or grants.
Still I managed to do well and even had $300k in assets. One severely disabled child is all it takes to lose all you have. Selling my DC house and moving to an area of the country with limited opportunities but wonderful services for said disabled child. Paid cash for the house so all I have to cover are the taxes and upkeep costs for our housing.

I'd rather be poor than happy than rich and miserable. Granted money does make things a little easier and it's nice to be able to afford a plumber.

The "charities" that Republicans donate to are largely their own churches.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in what I have been told is a Democratic bastion in Arlington. I am the neighborhood person who always gets asked to solicit help for major charities such as Lupus, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes and similar well known charities. The most I have gotten from the 27 people I have been required to solicit funds from is $10 from a woman who carpools with me. I think she was embarrassed not to give something. This has been at least 6 requests a year for 7 years. $10. I feel bad that no one will give me and always just write a check for $200 to the charities. I can afford and so can my neighbors. But they won't give a dime.

They won't give YOU a dime, when you come soliciting.

That doesn't say anything about their charitable donations that don't involve you.

Yes it actually does

Agreed, especially when compared to the pp in the mostly republican and less wealthy neighborhood with a similar story. If you are a generally charitable person, and can afford to give and are living within your means, than you will give a little. Especially to something like LLS. I mean, isn't that what the democrats are all about?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact is, society doesn't need 95% of the world's population to have MBAs, law degrees, etc. What we need in addition to lawyers, financial advisors, etc. is for people to take jobs as teachers, firefighters, nonprofit workers, clerical/support staff, daycare providers, sanitation workers, agriculture workers, etc. Heck, I am extremely grateful for the night cleaners who are hired to empty trash cans and vacuum my office at night.

Your high paying job does not exist in a vacuum and it takes all sorts of positions to keep society running.

Does that mean a secretary should eat at the same fancy restaurants and take the same expensive vacations as the partner at her law firm? Of course not. But the secretary also shouldn't have to live 50 miles from her job and live paycheck to paycheck while praying her kids never have a medical emergency. How in the world can you lack such compassion for the workers who teach our children, make sure our Christmas packages get delivered, etc.

OP -- you are far from the only person on this planet contributing anything worthwhile and I'd be willing to bet a lot of people who make less than you are benefitting society more than you.

I like most of what you've said here, but what's with the tendency to lump teachers in with "workers"? Most of the teachers I know have Master's degrees. They are wildly underpaid, IMO. In fact many teachers have more formal education than a lot of people who work in tech and make tons of money. Our priorities are screwed up. We should thank our lucky stars teachers even carry on with their work. It's out of selflessness that they do, and we need to recognize that. But it's a Catch 22, because it is an altruistic job, and therefore we don't think they should be paid well.

Yeah, she makes mostly good points and while mail carriers perform a valuable service, putting them in the same category of teachers is dubious at best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in what I have been told is a Democratic bastion in Arlington. I am the neighborhood person who always gets asked to solicit help for major charities such as Lupus, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes and similar well known charities. The most I have gotten from the 27 people I have been required to solicit funds from is $10 from a woman who carpools with me. I think she was embarrassed not to give something. This has been at least 6 requests a year for 7 years. $10. I feel bad that no one will give me and always just write a check for $200 to the charities. I can afford and so can my neighbors. But they won't give a dime.

They won't give YOU a dime, when you come soliciting.

That doesn't say anything about their charitable donations that don't involve you.

Yes it actually does

Anonymous wrote:


Wow, the PP proves the OP's point. She or he did not learn any marketable skills and those that do are supposed to reward the slacker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in what I have been told is a Democratic bastion in Arlington. I am the neighborhood person who always gets asked to solicit help for major charities such as Lupus, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes and similar well known charities. The most I have gotten from the 27 people I have been required to solicit funds from is $10 from a woman who carpools with me. I think she was embarrassed not to give something. This has been at least 6 requests a year for 7 years. $10. I feel bad that no one will give me and always just write a check for $200 to the charities. I can afford and so can my neighbors. But they won't give a dime.

They won't give YOU a dime, when you come soliciting.

That doesn't say anything about their charitable donations that don't involve you.

Yes it actually does

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in what I have been told is a Democratic bastion in Arlington. I am the neighborhood person who always gets asked to solicit help for major charities such as Lupus, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes and similar well known charities. The most I have gotten from the 27 people I have been required to solicit funds from is $10 from a woman who carpools with me. I think she was embarrassed not to give something. This has been at least 6 requests a year for 7 years. $10. I feel bad that no one will give me and always just write a check for $200 to the charities. I can afford and so can my neighbors. But they won't give a dime.

They won't give YOU a dime, when you come soliciting.

That doesn't say anything about their charitable donations that don't involve you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in what I have been told is a Democratic bastion in Arlington. I am the neighborhood person who always gets asked to solicit help for major charities such as Lupus, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes and similar well known charities. The most I have gotten from the 27 people I have been required to solicit funds from is $10 from a woman who carpools with me. I think she was embarrassed not to give something. This has been at least 6 requests a year for 7 years. $10. I feel bad that no one will give me and always just write a check for $200 to the charities. I can afford and so can my neighbors. But they won't give a dime.

How on earth is that an indicator of their overall charitable giving? Because your neighbors don't want or need you as a middleman, you assume they mustn't be making charitable donations anywhere else? Good grief.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Actually I'm not. I didn't come from money. Lower middle class at best and a shitty mid western town that is slowly decaying due to offshoring.

Sorry you didn't choose a major in college that has high paying mid career salary and went with a liberal arts degree that makes you feel smart but pays $30k a year. You should have taken out loans like me and gone to business school. Sorry you didn't take a job fraught with risk and move to the budding new Silicon Valley of nova with a ton of student debt but with hope for the upside. Actually nope not sorry at all. The heated seats in my GL550 warm my soul.

Oh God. This is so embarrassing and nouveau riche. I can't even deal.

As often as this comes up in DCUM, I still can't figure out why it's good to have inherited your money from your great-grandfather but embarrassing to have made it yourself.

Because of people like this. people who are nouveau generally have no manners, dont know which fork to use, etc etc etc. No etiquette, no social graces, no charm or reserve. As the obnoxious OP proved. If you are looking for why the old guards hate new money, well, you're looking at it.

I'm pretty sure I will get by in life just fine with out knowing which fork to use.

I'm sure you'll get by. Just dont expect to fit in at certain functions, with certain people. And realize that they will always think of you as being lower than them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here again, I am not talking about people who live in abject poverty eat. I am talking about people who had the opportunities to make certain decisions with their lives be at get an MBA or an engineering degree but decided that working for the department of agriculture or And obscure nonprofit was what they wanted to do. That is all well and good but you must realize that with that life comes certain sacrifices. Just stop blaming people like me who chose to go the other route. Yes money was a motivating factor with everything I did up until I actually started working.

The problem with people like you is you don't realize how your own greed affects others. I work for a law firm that is about to fall apart. Over the last several years, staff have been forced to go without pay raises, we've had large increases in their health insurance costs, and have had other benefits reduced. We've had to go through multiple rounds of lay-offs, with the result that my workload has increased and I make LESS money. The attitude of the firm is that we should feel lucky to have jobs at all. We stay because we are desperate, not because the jobs are good. It should not be this way. I've heard attorneys say "if you wanted to make any money, you should have gone to Harvard like me." Well, not everyone wants to be a lawyer. Not everyone wants an MBA. That shouldn't be the ONLY option to make a decent salary that can support someone in a large urban area. It shouldn't have to be a choice between a millionaire and having nothing.

At the same time I read about how the partners at my firm have made more money than ever the last few years. But staff cuts can no longer finance the partner compensation increases. Now that they are faced with a decrease in their already overblown compensation, they are all going to just jump ship to go to some other place stupid enough to give them large pay guarantees. The staff will be unemployed.

The company I work for should pay me enough that I don't have to just scrape by. In no way do I think I should make as much as the attorneys, but the difference between what the people at the top make and the rest of the company gets larger and larger. The greed is mind blowing.

Wow, the PP proves the OP's point. She or he did not learn any marketable skills and those that do are supposed to reward the slacker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact is, society doesn't need 95% of the world's population to have MBAs, law degrees, etc. What we need in addition to lawyers, financial advisors, etc. is for people to take jobs as teachers, firefighters, nonprofit workers, clerical/support staff, daycare providers, sanitation workers, agriculture workers, etc. Heck, I am extremely grateful for the night cleaners who are hired to empty trash cans and vacuum my office at night.

Your high paying job does not exist in a vacuum and it takes all sorts of positions to keep society running.

Does that mean a secretary should eat at the same fancy restaurants and take the same expensive vacations as the partner at her law firm? Of course not. But the secretary also shouldn't have to live 50 miles from her job and live paycheck to paycheck while praying her kids never have a medical emergency. How in the world can you lack such compassion for the workers who teach our children, make sure our Christmas packages get delivered, etc.

OP -- you are far from the only person on this planet contributing anything worthwhile and I'd be willing to bet a lot of people who make less than you are benefitting society more than you.

I like most of what you've said here, but what's with the tendency to lump teachers in with "workers"? Most of the teachers I know have Master's degrees. They are wildly underpaid, IMO. In fact many teachers have more formal education than a lot of people who work in tech and make tons of money. Our priorities are screwed up. We should thank our lucky stars teachers even carry on with their work. It's out of selflessness that they do, and we need to recognize that. But it's a Catch 22, because it is an altruistic job, and therefore we don't think they should be paid well.

Anonymous wrote:I live in what I have been told is a Democratic bastion in Arlington. I am the neighborhood person who always gets asked to solicit help for major charities such as Lupus, Leukemia/Lymphoma Society, March of Dimes and similar well known charities. The most I have gotten from the 27 people I have been required to solicit funds from is $10 from a woman who carpools with me. I think she was embarrassed not to give something. This has been at least 6 requests a year for 7 years. $10. I feel bad that no one will give me and always just write a check for $200 to the charities. I can afford and so can my neighbors. But they won't give a dime.

Anonymous wrote:The fact is, society doesn't need 95% of the world's population to have MBAs, law degrees, etc. What we need in addition to lawyers, financial advisors, etc. is for people to take jobs as teachers, firefighters, nonprofit workers, clerical/support staff, daycare providers, sanitation workers, agriculture workers, etc. Heck, I am extremely grateful for the night cleaners who are hired to empty trash cans and vacuum my office at night.

Your high paying job does not exist in a vacuum and it takes all sorts of positions to keep society running.

Does that mean a secretary should eat at the same fancy restaurants and take the same expensive vacations as the partner at her law firm? Of course not. But the secretary also shouldn't have to live 50 miles from her job and live paycheck to paycheck while praying her kids never have a medical emergency. How in the world can you lack such compassion for the workers who teach our children, make sure our Christmas packages get delivered, etc.

OP -- you are far from the only person on this planet contributing anything worthwhile and I'd be willing to bet a lot of people who make less than you are benefitting society more than you.