I'll just say human nature again. In my opinion, as a species, when you boil all the modern fat away and look at us at our most primal level; we are little more then semi hairless tribal primates who's only goal or care, is self preservation and enhancement. No matter how much times change, i think that will always remain constant at the base level.

EDIT: to extrapolate further, I would argue that things like what is seen at walmart in this day and age, wasn't seen as much in the past generations (if at all), due to moral (not to be confused with the religious context of the word) degredation in our country. I could extrapolate further, but then i'd really be jumping tracks.

The last I did this years ago, a 300 lb black woman fought me for a minute of a laptop.....

Who won?

Armistead obviously survived..
In a war, it does not matter who's wrong or right, just who's left :O:

The store that sold it to either one of them.

Hello Soopaman,

maybe i was in a bad mood yesterday, sry. I think i even understand how you feel as i did myself somewhere along the line, but i have come to have another opinion. I implore you, please read the following, and then think what you want - but read it.
You are right: "We are exactly where American Business wants us. Trying to kill one another rather than them."

'Them'. If only you would understand what you are saying. "They", the "american business"? (B.t.w. it is not "the US business" alone, same here in Europe with all 'businesses'. Now who do you think this business consists of ?
You blame your situation on social welfare spending and people abusing the system. There are a few, right, but they are not the majority, nor do they use up much of the GNP. More to that and numbers later down here.

The people who brought the poor and the middle class (same next time) into this situation is not some people abusing the system, but people who brought you and me into that general situation. But we would never blame those wo are responsible. For this, we have the "truth makers" like Fox News, The Sun and BILD, who tell us who to blame.

We the middle class have always been tricked in believing that when we wash dishes long enough, we will end up as Rockefeller. So a lot of us think it is that club where we really belong. So we elect certain parties in the faint hope they will do something for us ("we elected them, sure they will remember that").
Unfortunately the party people who brought the middle class into the current situation consists of some few very rich people, being in those parties themselves, or having well-paid lobbyists waving the flag. And even if you think you belong theer, or even are there, you are not.
All the middle class is conditioned to think they are in that Cheney gang or belong there, but they never were, and will.
Carlin had that right: "They are a small, exclusive club. And you ain't in it."

So instead of holding people responsible who are responsible, media like Fox News or Berlusconi's clown media tell us who we have to blame for our misery: Usually illegal aliens, the enemy abroad, competing markets, Gipsies, blacks, jews, welfare queens, you name it.
So we all blame it on those who are either worse off than us or people who we envy, and it is all about kiss up and kick down.

Can you even imagine how much western and eastern governments spend for the military and the whole apparatus and complex that's connected with it. And they are subsidized, with tax money, making welfare costs look like the North Korean GNP in comparison.
This is an idiotic comparison, but the yearly cost of stationing one soldier in Iraq could feed 60 American families, which again is a joke vs. what is spent altogether. Social welfare is tiny, in comparison to military expenditure and corporate welfare:

"When one thinks about government welfare, the first thing that comes to mind is the proverbial welfare queen sitting atop her majestic throne of government cheese issuing a royal decree to her clamoring throngs of illegitimate babies that they may shut the hell up while she tries to watch Judge Judy.

However, many politically well-connected corporations are also parasitically draining their share of fiscal blood from your paycheck before you ever see it. It's called corporate welfare. The intent here is to figure out which presents the greater burden to our federal budget, corporate or social welfare programs."

Government Spends More on Corporate Welfare Subsidies than Social Welfare Programs:
http://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-welfare-statistics-vs-social-welfare-statistics/

For those who believe in Fox News statistics about social (!) welfare numbers:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/28/1251247/-One-Fox-News-chart-that-will-mislead-you-about-welfare-and-jobs-in-three-different-ways
same
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2013/10/28/dishonest-fox-chart-overstates-comparison-of-we/196618

Thanks and greetings,
Catfish

I've seen a couple do their grocery shopping in a convenience store. Paid with food stamps and loaded it all into the trunk of a brand new Cadillac.

They were definitely gaming the system.:hmmm:

Of course some are. Do you really think this is why the whole middle class becomes extinct ? Please read my post #26 up here.

^good links, Catfish, bookmarked the thinkbynumbers page.

Apparently in the US, supermarket clerks have more power than the police. They can not only check a car registration without probable cause and determine its ownership. They also have all the other infos about a person within seconds, like financial history and family background. They find all this out without even seeing the person's ID. :o
Amazing! The DHS is nothing in comparison.

Usually the case :)

Watching that video in the first post?
I'd have fallen on the floor when that arse pulled that little stunt.
All the while screaming how hurt I was!
(I can spit blood on a moments notice)
I could see a nice X-mas just to stop any legal actions.
:hmmm:
I'm sure the guy that took the video would hand it over for a slice of the pie!
:haha:

And I have seen people on welfare driving 10-15 year old cars that barely work; stretching their foodstamps to try and cover the entire food budget for a small family, buying the cheapest stuff in the store.

So I guess it evens things out then. :yep: