Working Joe vs. Welfare Joe

Another email tale that has been making the rounds for years.
Some are exactly the same, except it's Joe Legal vs. Joe Illegal. Now that one is way off base, as illegals are not fully eligible for welfare bennies as the comparison would have you believe.
But this one is fairly accurate, except for the author being a bit math challenged right at the beginning.

WORKING JOE vs. WELFARE JOE 

You have two families: " WORKING JOE " vs " WELFARE JOE ". Both families have two parents, two children, and live in New York . 

WORKING Joe works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted. 
Welfare Joe does not work, has a Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 per hour "without leaving the house". 

Ready? Now pay attention... 

Working Joe : $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. 
Now take 30% away for local, state, and federal taxes. 
Working Joe now has $31,231.00 net.. 

Welfare Joe : $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or $31,200..00 per year. Welfare Joe pays no taxes. Welfare Joe now has $31,200.00 net. 

Working Joe pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Working Joe now has $24,031.00 net. 

Welfare Joe has full medical and dental coverage through Medicaid and local free clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year. Welfare Joe still has $31,200.00 net. 

Working Joe makes too much money and is not eligible for welfare. Working Joe pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year. Working Joe now has $18,031

net. 

Welfare Joe has no documented income and is eligible for welfare. Welfare Joe still has $31,200.00 net. 

Working Joe pays rent of $1,200..00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Working Joe now has $9,631.00 net. 

Welfare Joe receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Welfare Joe pays out that $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year. Welfare Joe still has $31,200.00 net. 

Working Joe pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for auto insurance.. Working Joe now has $7,231...00 net. 

Welfare Joe says, "We don't need no stinkin' insurance!" and still has $31,200.00 net. 

Working Joe has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc. 

Welfare Joe has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, buy gas, prepaid cell phone card, (alcohol/cigarettes) and play at the Casino. 

Working Joe now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work. 

Welfare Joe has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family and friends. 

Working Joe and Welfare Joe's c hildren attend the same school.

Working Joe pays for his children's lunches while Welfare Joe's children get a government sponsored lunch.

Working Joe's children go home after school, while Welfare Joe's children have an after school program provided free. 

Working Joe and Welfare Joe both enjoy the same police and fire services, but working Joe paid for them with his taxes and Welfare Joe did not.

The numbers may be off a bit. For example 70% of 52k is about $36,400. But the overall idea of this is spot on.
Now, some folks out there may claim that I am a racist. Go ahead, I don't give a rat's ass. The race card is dog eared and no longer has much bite.
Some may claim that this is all preposterous. The ravings of a right wing loon making crap up. Well Che, when my wife and I first married, we lived in a very low rent apartment complex with a large percentage of section 8's (welfare folk in CT getting housing assistance). Mostly white, so suck it on any racist attacks.

I can tell you from that first hand experience that welfare recipients in CT get some pretty hefty bennies. Housing assistance, heating assistance, medical paid, food stamps, school meals, and God only knows what else.
Well, OK, the kid's need shelter and food and so on, and they are innocent in all this, so shouldn't be punished. But consider that those kids grow up to be on welfare, and their kids, and so on. We have several generations of welfare recipients. They know no other life.

Here's a little story to illustrate how utterly corrupt and foul the system is:
One of our neighbors in the aforementioned apartment complex had two kids, each from a different father. She was not married to either, but was currently dating another guy. One day, while chatting with us, she said that if she had a third child, the state would rent her a house. She really wanted a house, so she was considering getting pregnant so she could get one. But she really wasn't sure she wanted a child by her then current boyfriend.
She thought nothing of this. She spoke about it in the same way that we would talk about considering a car purchase. She simply considered welfare to be the way things were, and she would take advantage of whatever was offered.
That was one woman among how many thousands upon thousands?
There are other stories I could tell you about those days, but in the end, all that matters is that I saw and experienced first hand the waste that is the welfare state.

Here is a breakdown of the CT budget.

Where Your State Tax Dollar Goes

Granted, Medicaid is huge, but man there's a lot for programs such as the one our former neighbor was milking.

Don't give me any crap about helping the poor. President Johnson had the best of intentions when he foisted the Great Society on this country, but the end result is a disaster. Poverty is still huge, and no, it's NOT Bush's fault. Hunger, disease, crime, all no better. A permanent underclass has been created, and continues being bred, on and on. We have institutionalized poverty, and enslaved generations to welfare, just so some of us can smugly say "look at all we are doing to help the poor." Don't throw your shoulders out reaching around to pat yourselves on the back.

I offer no thoughts on fixing the problem here. There are many ideas out there, by men and women far smarter than me. I will at some point in the future link to some of those ideas, but for now, this post states the problem that desperately needs to be solved.

Global Warming is Crap XVI

Getting close to the end of 2012. I guess with the Mayan calendar being true and all, this whole thing is moot right?

I once again came across some old articles that I don't want to leave out, even though some are two years old at this point. Also, I admit I'm covering some of the same ground once in a while, but it just makes clearer the fact that this info has been out there in several places for years, but ignored.

Here's a fellow who felt that the warmies would finally be exposed due to proof of a central clique that protects it's own with no regard to truth. Well, I'm afraid he overestimated the power the warmies hold over many governments, media, and overaged flowerchildren.

Phil Jones reinstated

And from Canada, a mathematical argument against some global warming claims.

The Carbon Cycle and Royal Society

Here's something a bit more recent, and a truly excellent source for global warming info. This is another person who truly researches, while I just link to articles.

Global Warming Due to Solar Activity

Turned out the sea level change was doctored. Lying as only warmies can do.

Research Reveals Sea Level Adjusted

Well, well, well. Now I've seen it all. NASA data turns against the warmies? How did this ever get out?

NASA Data

You know how the Antarctic ice is melting right? Of course you do, we hear about it a lot. Proof of the global warming caused end times. Um, about that ice:

Antarctic Sea Ice Sets a Record

Time after time, over and over, the warmies are proven wrong. But you will rarely hear of it, because that message doesn't fit with the media money making message, which of course is that we are all in peril and you need to stay tuned to "learn" more.

Political Divorce Agreement

This was supposedly written by a college student. I haven't found anything to verify or contradict that claim. I don't know if the person credited as being author is accurate.
But I do know that it is pretty cool, and though several years old, is fitting for this day of secession talk.
I don't agree with 100% of it, but most is spot on.
Read and enjoy, or spit your latte all over your quiche.

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950's for the sake of the kids, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship

has clearly run its course.

Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right for us all, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable  differences and go our own way.

Here is a model separation agreement:

--Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a similar portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes.

--We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them.

--You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU.

--Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military.

--We'll take the nasty, smelly oil industry and you can go with wind, solar and biodiesel.

--You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. You are, however, responsible for finding a  bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them.

--We'll keep capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street.

--You can have your beloved lifelong welfare dwellers, food stamps,

homeless, homeboys, hippies, druggies and illegal aliens.

--We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks.

--We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood .

--You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us.

--You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security.

--We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values.

--You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism, political correctness and Shirley McClain.  You can also have the U.N. but we will no longer be paying the bill.

--We'll keep the SUV's, pickup trucks and oversized luxury cars. You can take every Volt and Leaf you can find.

--You can give everyone healthcare if you can find any practicing doctors.

--We'll continue to believe healthcare is a luxury and not a right.

--We'll keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "The National Anthem."

--I'm sure you'll be happy to substitute "Imagine", "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing", "Kum Ba Ya" or "We Are the World".

--We'll practice trickle-down economics and you can continue to give trickle up poverty your best shot.

--Since it often so offends you, we'll keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along to other like-minded liberal and conservative  patriots and if you do not agree, just hit delete.

In the spirit of friendly parting, I'll bet you answer which one of us will need whose help in 15 years.

Sincerely,

John J. Wall

Law Student and an American

P.S. Also, please take Ted Turner, Sean Penn, Martin & Charlie Sheen, Barbara Streisand, & ( Hanoi ) Jane Fonda with you.

P.S.S. And you won't have to press 1 for English when you call our country.

I Will Not Vote Democrat Nor Republican

I wrote a short piece for a political symposium, and I reprint it here.
Unfortunately, like most everything I write, I had little time to really think carefully about my words. I certainly couldn't edit it. I just had to knock it out as quick as possible, much like these blog posts.

But here it is:

In 1976, a few days after my 18^th birthday, I registered Republican. I’ve always voted Republican for president until Ross Perot in 1992. I voted Republican again until 2008, when I wrote in Ron Paul, as I saw no use in either Obama or McCain. I firmly believed a popular slogan at the time that went like this:

“Either way we’re screwed”.

This election- I plan to vote for Gary Johnson.

Why the change? From 1976 on, I always liked the Republican candidate, and disliked the Democrat. Simple. Then, in 1992, I suddenly found myself not liking either candidate. Something was very wrong, as both Bush and Clinton seemed strangely ‘programmed,’ not quite in touch with reality (though Clinton was very adept at manipulating feelings). Along came Ross Perot, and I saw someone outside of the country club, trying to crash the gate. He alone seemed to actually address the economy in an honest, intelligent way. I voted for Bob Dole in 1996, simply because he deserved a few votes, even if he couldn’t win.

Following that was George W Bush (Dubya). I actually liked him, though not as much as any previous Republican presidential candidates. Though he seemed like a bit of a decline in quality, he was not too bad overall. And he was certainly superior to Gore, though that was not much of a challenge. By the next election, it was clear that Dubya wasn’t really a conservative, and I found myself being ambivalent about his presidency. Still, I considered Kerry to be a real stinker. And so that was my first real “lesser of two evils” election. I was still only vaguely aware of third parties, and I didn’t really understand them, nor did I agree with them at the time, based on what little I knew.

As I gradually switched my news source from television and newspapers to the internet, I found that the information in front of me had become much more diverse. As I learned and branched out more, I became aware of other parties, especially the Libertarian party. This switch was not wholly on purpose. I just found that I could get more news here and there on the internet during workbreaks than having to sit and dedicate blocks of time to the tube or paper. But what a great intellectual liberation it was to see news about my country from foreign news sources and not have to depend on all the carefully scripted scraps our own sources allow us to see. What a pleasure to simply visit fark.com and drudgereport.com and read news sourced from around the world, and from those with differing points of view. How great it is to log into my faceboook and Twitter accounts, and see links to articles from authors I would never have found otherwise.

And therein lays the reason I am voting for Gary Johnson. I have been the recipient of information that has made me far more knowledgeable about world affairs and our very broken political system. With this new understanding comes the realization that it is absolutely imperative that I contribute to fixing that broken system as best I can. It’s that simple.

The more you learn about the world, the further you can get away from the talking heads and “newsmakers” who will try to manipulate you, the more you will find that the DNC and GOP are not in the game for you, nor our country, but only for power. The clearer it will become to you that the duopoly must be shattered and other voices heard.

No one who relies on television and newspapers will ever know this.