The cut off for Medicaid in my state has remained at the same number since 2016. That means in ten years even with extreme inflation and over that long of a period of time, they kept the cut-off the same. That is a giant backdoor cut in Medicaid. I live in a state historically known as "blue". I was right about the extreme welfare cut-offs. Back in the 2010s, I remember all the household budgets, all the prices have gone up by 100 percent, especially doubled. I am paying on so many medical bills, with payment plans, I have a roster of them all to keep track of them. Default on bills is probably off the chain now. I've paid mine but they keep going up.
No one can afford their bills. Lest someone blame the Republicans only for all the welfare cuts, the welfare, Medicaid, EBT insanity happened under Democrats too. We essentially do not have social services anymore. This is very scary for a disabled person. They raised Medicare Premiums. I get a small Social Security check and today, almost 300 of it is taken out of the gate for premiums/Medicare D premiums. So I get my low-level check, an amount anyone would struggle to live on and 300 of it is gone on the first day. All costs were increased by 140 dollars in one year.
The rich jerks in charge don't care. They are only out for themselves. Maybe this is what you get when all your politicians are rich and even local ones live the 6 figure life and are completely out of touch with how ordinary people have to live. We had 60 dollars to spend at Aldis yesterday. I'm doing things like eating the same thing over and over for dinner, its cheaper and there's only so choices. I consider skipping meals again, but get scared about my weird metabolism, that can go even lower if there's too little food. The money they expect everyone to pay on everything is insane. The powers that be lie and tell us inflation is only 4 percent, we know it's far higher. We are paying double for somethings we got just a few years ago.
I'm in danger of homelessness. So is my husband. If one of us dies or needs long term hospitalization or rehab, the other party is in great financial peril. In my husband's case, I am hoping his sister or best friend would take him in. I am hoping friends would help me but that's a lot to ask of anyone especially in someone's case like my own where there's severe medical problems to contend with. The way they got the housing set up, as I have written about multiple times and the rest, the system seems designed to just crush people. Too many assume disabled people will be automatically helped. Trust me, social workers never had much mercy for me. The one social worker was sincere from my house call doctor's office at least but their first order of business is usually to turn you away. I worry even now about weight discrimination affecting me when it comes to housing. I wanted to meet with social workers, and talk to them about emergency plans for both I and husband, "What should we do?" but there was nothing like that out there.
Yesterday I talked about what we should do if either of us ends up homeless. I said my arbitrary plan is to find an open disability apartment but that would mean moving to a very remote area most likely away from medical care, and that is scary. "There really is no social services system and we have to plan accordingly." This is why I wanted us to move into housing and why the HUD cut offs are so punishing. I'm still on one list as a back-up and probably should go on more just for back-up but the HUD cut-offs are insane too, they match the 10 year old Medicaid cut-offs that do not take inflation or reality into consideration. There was a lot more help 10 years ago.
The system is NOT working anymore. The amount of money the social workers except people to live on no longer works, in my state they never changed anything for all this inflation. That is why Medicaid is using the same numbers from 2016. The math doesn't math. My rent is paid, but this is a burden I live under. I'm tired of living in fear. I also have told him chances are if we remain housed, we may have to take in a friend or other people who become homeless. "The streets are going to fill up with hoboes just like it did during the first Great Depression!"
How much do the assholes in charge plan to squeeze everyone? Until they can't eat? That usually brings revolutions in world history. Revolutions can make things worse and then you basically live in a war zone, where supplies are vaporized. Hate to tell you all but I see outraged comments on many websites, where people write things like {paraphrasing here}
"Let it collapse"
"This government does not care about us"
"Thomas Jefferson had the remedy"
"I am sick of these bills, I hope society just cracks up and I no longer have to pay them"
There's been "revolution" comments too, I won't repeat here, but use your imagination. I don't want my blog censored.
This is something new and means people are getting fed up. Some of us are questioning a "ruined decade" starting with 2020.
These are the comments of a failing society with failed leadership on multiple levels. Thinking of that old bicentennial time, people back then liked being American. It wasn't perfect, the 1970s had problems and Jimmy Carter but there was a lot more hope back then.
I make jokes to my husband if famine hits, well we are fat, and our metabolisms suck and maybe we would survive. Americans were so passive and bent over for all the Covid crap, will they just watch fellow citizens starve as they suck their thumbs? Some of us have friends who have helped thankfully but what is wrong with this place? I am glad someone asked this question....
What is going to happen when the lower class can't afford anything anymore?
Yes what is going to happen? See Argentina, the Weimer Republic, etc. etc. It's not good.
Most churches don't care. Those of us who are this poor, know we can't afford church or would be embarrassed as the pastors make their tithing demands. Locally they closed our Soup Kitchen, they said, "Oh we are going to reopen it" and there the building sits still not open two years ago. We drove by it the other day. Someone told me they pass out bag lunches. I feel bad unable to give much. I do give spare scraps for food I can't eat to one food box, but then I take from it too. If I had money I'd fill that damn thing up, with some canned meat, real food and things people would enjoy eating instead of the endless parade of beans.
The United States sucks now and is becoming a third world country. There's a reason they got hygiene stations with shampoo for the poor at your local library. People can't even afford those items. It's for the homeless living in cars and tents but other poor people can't afford it either. The food banks got worse. They hand out the same cans of beans over and over. The churches hand out the same government food everywhere, around this area, that includes usually cheap cereal, a can of black beans, a can of pinto beans, or bag of pinto beans, maybe some rice, cheap bread, and boxes of macaroni and cheese. The cans of chicken disappeared around 6 months ago.
How come no one ever says, 'we should be able to afford basic things, this is wrong". Working people should not be homeless, or unable to afford shampoo or groceries or their bills. Hey in the 1990s, I knew bullshit was coming when they started all that "temp" crap, and I would have been happy enough back then to get a basic plastics factory job to pay my bills and be stable, but they made them all temp which means you couldn't depend on the work or the pay. I'm disabled, I never expected to be rich being disabled but right now the disability checks are shrinking and inflation has made them almost worthless. For years after I paid rent, there was always a certain buffer that was left, well that's now gone. Sometimes I hate my body because it made me poor. It is ironic I have to go without. One friend meant well giving me more dieting advice, but I thought, "Don't you realize I go without now all the time?" I and my husband are always splitting a portion for ONE into a portion for TWO." We did it yesterday with an Indian package of food I got for a cheaper price from the Indian store. Food choices are restricted from poverty all the time.
We are told all this utter crap about America being the richest country in the world. What a joke! The rest of the world sees this embarrassment. Iran did a video feeling sorry for poor Americans knowing the numbers of the homeless and unemployed here are exploding.
There's hoarded wealth at the top, but Americans are now becoming some of the poorest people on earth as far as developed nations go. Some guy I am guessing some sort of system lover, told me on YouTube comments to go see how great Cuba, Venezuela and Iran were. It was kind of weird they chose countries the USA is messing with instead of fixing problems here. Sorry that's not working, I live in an area where I can see ruins within a few miles once I leave the "good part of town", your delusional rah-rah American crap isn't going to cut it! There's YouTube videos about the ghetto area I live near and how "dangerous" it is, even though I am there an average of twice a week. These rich dummies who never see out of their bubbles still believe all that crap about America being rich because they are rich themselves. They live in denial and get mad at anyone who talks about the real state of the economy.
Patriotism is dying on a withering vine, in a place where so many have decided to lick the boots of soulless billionaires and sold their own family members out down the river. My ancestors destroyed my future life moving to this place, and denying their heritages. I told my husband, his German parents should have stayed home, maybe he would have been a middle-class man there. I would go back and tell my Hungarian and German ancestors, "Stay the hell home!"
from Passion for the Past blogspot. Check out the article too, and go down memory lane.
Those of us old enough to remember the bicentennial, remember what a big deal it was, our schools had us dress up, our parents bought decorations where there was glass plates with colonial scenes and brass Liberty bells. There were giant parades and celebrations. We felt proud to be American. Now that the 250th anniversary is here, no one cares.
What is there to celebrate? Our leaders hate us and seem to want us dead [Covid-democide]. They are out of touch jerks with no empathy. They have turned the USA into an exporter of wars instead of anything good. The world hates the United States now. They look at how abused the American people are and the poisonous food here and are disgusted. Some feel sorry for us while others are afraid of this place.
I'm talking about both parties. When local politicians bootlick that data center companies ignoring all the desires of fellow citizens, you wonder how come the sincere ones are so rare? There's nothing to look forward to but a possible AI hellscape with a oppressive social credit system. Anyone with half a brain can tell things in America are getting worse. We will be lucky if this place doesn't become like the book "The Road" and the better option would be for it to fade into third world obscurity. Some rich boomers can delude themselves with dreams about QFS and Nesara and whatever you call it, supposedly making everyone rich, but you are taking crazy pills to think these billionaires from hell are going to share.
Homelessness does seem to be exploding, I live in a more affluent town, they keep them hidden around here but I follow some social media pages of towns in my state that have been taken over by the homeless. Remember the town I went to college in? That place is so overrun with homeless people it's insane. There's one YouTube channel of a Christian man feeding the homeless there, and there's lots of them. Some are elderly but others are very young. They all look very hungry.
I couldn't get a job in that town in the 1990s, so I'm sure things got worse there. By 2012, the train station and a McDonalds was known as "homeless central", you could get hit up by 15 beggars all at once. I don't blame the people begging, some have nothing. There are some homeless organizations there that hand out tents, food and set up free vision, and hearing clinics for the destitute. Getting a job in that place would be like winning a Lotto.
My attitude towards that town is a negative one, I was poor there and denied needed help. The place sucked, there was a thin sliver of rich people and everyone else was poor. You had to beg to get even the crappiest temp job in the 1990s. I won't be surprised if it collapses into another heap and becomes another notorious poor and collapsed town in my rust belt state. Think of Gary Indiana, there's tons of Gary Indiana's, scattered across my state. It's a town on the way to collapse in my opinion.
We are in a Depression. This economy is a sinking ship. It is crazy how they have made homelessness illegal in many places while doing everything possible to increase homelessness. The laws are written in a way to make all needed activities in being homeless illegal, like sleeping in your car or camping. They don't provide any options either. When I was on X/Twitter, some conservatives were claiming Trump was going to have more homeless shelters built to get them off the streets. There's been no evidence of that whatsoever.
The laser technician having to buy a dog bed to sleep on in the back seat of her car, that's very sad. There are a lot of people living this way now. Then there's the people who bought the camping trailer to live in. A lot of the new laws about "camping" in multiple states is going to make their lives a lot harder. I have written about the social services system being set up like a maze where people fall through on purpose. The same applies to homelessness. They are ensuring that more people will end up homeless, but at the same time making survival impossible and writing the rules to punish people for becoming homeless. The system is set up in a way to destroy people. Some people who visit America are now commenting that this place is depressed. I see it in everyday life.
I agreed with this comment..
"veebeequeen
1 day ago
Why the hell do we have 'government' when it does nothing for the people. This makes my heart so sad for so many people experiencing this. I've lived in a van for good chunk of time and I loved the experience, but that was due to choice and not necessity. States making homelessness illegal with NO backup options or assistance is purely evil.
It is evil.
The evil in charge don't realize, they've lost people. Yeah there's still a few brainwashed MAGAS out there, the majority to be frank have jumped ship. They know and admit Trump turned his back on the American people and America First was a lie with the war on Iran and the state of the economy. Some are getting the inkling in an owned and corrupt system, that voting just feels like a dead end.
The Democratic party is a joke and already trying to foist Newsome, the guy who destroyed California on us. I saw his new book at the library, why would I read that trash? California has the highest numbers of homeless people. His new book seems to push identity politics as a selling point. He helped with gay marriage so look away from the slums of California and the endless people living in tents.
The young have grown so disenfranchised it's scary, they are getting tired. I see far less hope in them then when I was young.
This guy is right too:
[–]Typical-Mud-8589 1 point 2 hours ago
When the gap between survival and affordability becomes impossible to bridge, the social contract essentially dissolves, leading to massive instability and collective unrest. We are really playing with fire if we keep ignoring the reality that everyone deserves a baseline of dignity and survival.
Sadly this cycle has been repeated over and over in world history. The social contract in America is fraying to nothing, there will be far more instability and unrest. One town I considered moving to for cheaper rent, it is good I did not go there. I found out later from their Neighborhood board, the cheap rent got raised as of last year and is at least 1,000-1100 dollars. As everywhere gets more poorer, the crime rate will skyrocket. Many posts are about people being stolen from. They were looking for a stolen kid's bike the other day.
I wrote for years how poverty destroyed my health, and was part of my severe obesity story and wrote poems about it. Ironically this blog's traffic is growing like gangbusters. I get the feeling the growing poverty in America is bringing me readers, because I am one of the very few who talks about life being poor. Have any of you noticed, how there's no voices of anyone but rich jerks allowed anymore? You never see books, or writings etc. by ordinary people anymore. It's all bougiecrats, and elites. This is one reason zines are part of my hobbies. I know I am taking forever on the Covid zine, but the next one will be Fat Pat dealing with the ECONOMY. I have endless comics I already drew in my journals. When people are made voiceless that's a problem.
Why don't the Poor have a voice? Have you noticed how no one talks about poverty or the real economy except for some videos on Youtube or alternative websites? We are STILL being gaslit to death. We have been silenced. Why aren't there websites more directly addressing the USA economy? How come we have to go to the independents to get any news or any validation about what is happening? Think about that and how our media and everything else is owned by the same 6-7 corporations.
The level of poverty among people is worsening too. What about young newly disabled people? How will they survive when survival was so hard even earlier? I am not seeing the reactions that should be happening in an economy like this. They have distanced us from society. I hope some people are trying to find solutions and I am just cut off from knowing about these things. Are things going to change? Are there are going to be more communes? Will a mutual aid society come to my area? Will the churches actually do anything in terms of food, and helping the homeless, instead of passing out boxes of government food? I don't know. There's that point where you say well, I should be doing something positive instead of waiting for someone to do it. Maybe ponder that in your own life.
If our leaders suck, and the system is failing, we may need to build parallel systems or do things on a local basis for survival and community. Look for needs in your area and see what you can do. It's better to be proactive in this way and seek out more community and personal ties. If the economy does collapse, this may help with survival in the long run. I do wish there was more awake people around me. I know some thank goodness. This may sound like weird advice coming from me but if you have a decent family keep them around, I hope you can help each other. That was a sign of a real family.
I try to think of solutions all the time for personal survival, some ideas of mine are funny like, eating the same thing for dinner for 4-5 days, and some worked like thinking of stuff to sell. What about the bigger survival picture? Is anyone out there thinking of solutions? My own health, resources and power are pretty limited. I guess one thing I want to say is don't wait for the rich jerks to come and "save you" or those around you. Hopefully some grassroots stuff is coming together. The Buy Nothing movement is one positive thing out there, it's how I get free stuff and exchange things I don't need. Americans are already starting to barter under necessity and Buy Nothing is evidence of that. I think of history where people did come together to meet needs not being met in other places.
I went to a Buy Nothing Meet-up, and while no one took the clothing I had, I donated those things later. We got some cookie sheets and other usable items. We need more things like that. Maybe we need something food based so people can share resources for food. Some towns may have Food Not Bombs chapters but something along those lines. This town needs some more community gardening, maybe some places can do things like that. I'm trying now to research what is out there on the economic justice front and local endeavors. I may do a blog article listing groups I found nationally. Here's one group called the Poor People's Army.
I know the extreme wokes may have ruined some things out there, but maybe there's some still old school types trying to bring real help and answers as far as economic oppression goes. No Kings is a joke, many here know my opinion about them. Many some people should do their own protests, I know there's some real antiwar protests not associated with No Kings. I looked up one in Chicago. Are there any real economic protests or other endeavors out there? I don't know. These are some questions I would like to answer.
I'm just one person but I am looking around trying to figure out if there are local people examining the economy like me or trying to form other systems for survival. We need community especially in a time like this. I still dream of a church where the place shares resources and isn't just about enriching a pastor. I did meet a local independent disability activist; I plan to go visit with soon. Maybe I will talk to her about ideas related to disability.
The second Depression will be a lot harder. We barely know our neighbors. We have too many churches that shut the poor out. Many of us have no families. Community is gone. Some of us more fortunate have friends but in dystopia America you see people all the time who talk about having no friends. This place does everything to separate people and ruin community that it can. We definitely need community back. With the homeless, there needs to be less focus on "punishment" and more on responding to what made them homeless to begin with. I remember when people wanted society to function and wanted things to be better. Why have things gotten to the point where the actions taken are always ones to ruin people's lives and make it worse? It needs to change.
