“Hillbilly Elegy” J. D. Vance #BookReview

Vance identifies as a Conservative. I identify as a Democratic Socialist. Politically, it would look like we are opposites..... yet, there is a lot of common ground on our theories of how the issues of poverty can be solved.  The reason, in my mind, for that common ground is our shared experiences. Those of us who have lived it understand it in a way that those who haven't never will. This is why we need elected officials from every corner of every class of people we can find. The lenses they are currently looking through are much too narrow.

Book Review “The Poverty Industry” Daniel L. Hatcher

Government aid doesn’t always go where it’s supposed to. Foster care agencies team up with companies to take disability and survivor benefits from abused and neglected children. States and their revenue consultants use illusory schemes to siphon Medicaid funds intended for children and the poor into general state coffers. Child support payments for foster children and families on public assistance are converted into government revenue. And the poverty industry keeps expanding, leaving us with nursing homes and juvenile detention centers that sedate residents to reduce costs and maximize profit, local governments buying nursing homes to take the facilities’ federal aid while the elderly languish with poor care, and counties hiring companies to mine the poor for additional funds in modern day debtor’s prisons.

The Poverty Industry – Foster Care

To add to the outrage, a lot of that stolen money....it was once yours. Your taxes that is.

Growing Up South of the Mason Dixon

Growing up for me wasn't snow-cones and sunshine. There was little frolicking in the snow and building whimsical gingerbread houses. The better part of my childhood was spent merely trying to disappear or survive.