wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Maggie from Upper West Side October 13, 2009 - 11:15AM

  Poverty is defined as a family of 4 who live at or under $26,000 a year.

  Poverty does not end there in NYC.

  The problem is a family of 4 who live at $30,000 and who do not qualify for benefits that the family of 4 who live at or under $26,000 a year receive.

  Or the family of 4 who live at $50,000 and have student debt over $100,000 and who do not qualify for benefits that the family of 4 who live at or under $26,000 a year receive.

  Or the single person who lives at $50,000 pays half of their earnings to student loans and the other half to rent and does not qualify for food stamps, medical insurance or low income housing.

  We are hungry, uninsured and can only pray. What about us?

  
  
• [2] RJ from brooklyn October 13, 2009 - 11:19AM

  The mayor insists that poor and working poor families simultaneously work sub-minimum wage jobs, so-called training jobs, and participate in their children's schools, including staying at home with them and working on homework etc., and attending parent teacher meetings, and go out of their ways to find healthy foods, and get exercise ... The burden that Bloomberg puts on poor and working-poor people is one even he could not meet.

  
  
• [3] rob-o-cop from ny October 13, 2009 - 11:21AM

  What is she talking about, she keeps changing the flow of the conversation.

  Stop asking her questions Brian

  
  
• [4] Mike October 13, 2009 - 11:22AM

  Can the guests define what they consider to be a "good job?"

  
  
• [5] RJ from brooklyn October 13, 2009 - 11:24AM

  Plus he consolidated afterschool programs, forcing poor people to travel farther to pickup children, and to travel to multiple places to both drop off (preschool) children and pickup the afterschool kids when they have multiple children.

  And to get children into good schools, parents have to jump through multiple hoops, visiting individual schools--which poor and working-class people do not have the time to do if they're working multiple sub- and minimum-wage jobs. So their kids get worse-quality educations.

  
  
• [6] Larry October 13, 2009 - 11:24AM

  I'm sorry, but just because you don't want to do a job, doesn't mean that you should continue to stay on food stamps or welfare. If you are able to do a job, you should do it period.

  
  
• [7] Joseph from Brooklyn October 13, 2009 - 11:24AM

  I hope you ask your guests about Bloomberg forcing privately run homeless shelters to shut down and what Thompson's position is.

  
  
• [8] john from office October 13, 2009 - 11:26AM

  I grew up in williamsburg in the 60's and saw whole families on welfare, grand parents, parents and their children.

  When does personal responsibility come in for the signel mother, with multiple children. As long as the state replaces the father, we will have these problems

  
  
• [9] Ivan October 13, 2009 - 11:26AM

  If people are too poor to live here, isn't the logical solution for them to move? I have friends who left NYC to live in other parts of the country because they found this area to be too expensive.

  
  
• [10] RJ from brooklyn October 13, 2009 - 11:26AM

  And the mayor has raised the basic "fees" (won't call them taxes)--mass transit, supported rent increases for stabilized apartments, city university--that poor and working-class people need.

  They are damned 6 ways from Sunday.

  
  
• [11] tF from 10075 October 13, 2009 - 11:31AM

  it's hard enough getting a good nanny without the government making me pay for the perks for the help.

  
  
• [12] the truth from bkny October 13, 2009 - 11:31AM

  Has anyone checked out the cost of baby sitter these days? How about a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread? So when you tell the welfare recipient to go work for minimum wage you are not making sense to them..they cannot earn enough to cover the price of a baby sitter in one week!

  
  
• [13] the truth from bkny October 13, 2009 - 11:32AM

  @JOHN...no point in trying to address what amounts to a moral issue, when there are children to be fed!

  
  
• [14] john from office October 13, 2009 - 11:34AM

  I agree, you are right