Does this thread have to do with pets or politics? Most of the working poor in this country arent helpless, they have acryllic nails, cell phones and car payments. When my husband and i got married we lived in his $8.00 an hour salary and had one car and he rode his bike to work. We didn't have cable, washing machine or even a dishwasher in our apartment. Our budget for the week for groceries was $40. He still works for the same company, he works in an industry that doesnt do mass layoffs in economic crisis. So i know what its like to have to budget. We all do i'm sure.
I sold my very nice car last year when i knew i was going to have to cut back on work due to medical problems. Some things can't be foreseen but some risks also arent worth taking. There are a lot of people who don't think ahead about the field of work that they go into and have student loans to pay off for that particular degree they desperately wanted to have.
I've had clients let me go because they could no longer afford my services because they made about or less than we do and live in a house 3 times the size.
If our ancestors could survive the hard economic times with livestock and 10 kids, there is no reason why we can't either. It's all a matter of being wise and having priorities. Maybe i was raised differently. We refinanced our home to lower the payment about 5 years after moving in when the interest rates were high, we also started a 401K plan before we were 21 to plan for the future.
Hundreds of years ago people didn't feel sorry for everyone else because they lived haphazardly. I paid for my daughter baby formula while other girls qualified for WIC as single mothers and while i put my one can of expensive formula in my basket, they put 8 cans for free that my tax money paid for. I also bought generic cereals, cheese and milk that their WIC voucher would pay for the name brand.
I do not take for granted what i have, my parents could have a lot more but they choose to have something to live on in the future. Savings is not something we are good at, but stretching our dollar and planning ahead and making a way without either of us having college degrees is not luck, it's being cautious and not being risktakers.
No one shouldnt have enough to eat with all the gov't subsidies available. If you dump your dog at the gas station you are asking for it to get hurt, tortured, ran over and full of diseases and heartworm. I've had to pay $1,500 for my dog to have her heartworm removed because someone didn't care for her and let her starve. Most cats on the street have feline lukemia from other cats. Look at the life an animal has on the streets and they would be better put down than to die of these painful diseases or be ran over.
People should be given a prison sentence for purposely leaving their animals to starve...i don't see honest homeowners doing this. Usually they are renters who skip on rent and leave their apartment in shambles so the landlord can call me to clean it up.
I do a very physical laborious job because i dont have a degree to make the same living doing something less physical. I have been fortunate but much of it is due to my own decisions. I see the difference in my parents and the rest of the family who make entirely different decisions on the same adversities. We all get flat tires, or medical bills. Hell i've had the collectors after me for them recently, but hard times does not equate starving your animals. We don't live in a 3rd world country.