Two words, morons: Trac Fone.
The reality today is that it's cheaper to own a Trac Fone than it is to have a landline. You're a lot more limited in the number of calls you can make when you're buying your minutes in 60-minute bundles, but the upfront investment is a lot lower. The image below is from the Trac Fone website, but I've seen them at Family Dollar for $14.95.
But I guess even a $14.95 phone is a little too much luxury for poor folks to deserve. Let's hope the haters never find out about Safelink or they'll really freak out.
[Over the years I've learned that other things the poor are not allowed to possess include automobiles that are not rolling death traps, digital tvs, clothing that doesn't look like it came from Goodwill, and decent shoes. They must also never ever allow any red meat other than the cheapest form of hamburger to cross their lips, they're not allowed to waste their money on soft drinks or ice cream, and god forbid they should ever use their EBT card ("food stamps") to buy potato chips.]
The only time in my life that I got mad about seeing someone on food stamps was back in the 1970's when I was working my way through college and I would see students in the grocery store using food stamps.
ReplyDeleteJobs were plentiful and it just didn't seem right to me that they were taking advantage of something meant for, in my mined, families and people living in hard times.
You're not kidding. Any article about the poor, the jobless or anyone in need of anything really brings out the ugly side in people.
ReplyDeleteOf course, I find it amusing that people who are willing to say such nasty stuff won't put their name on it. They comment under stupid pseudonyms or anonymously. So brave.
Not having much use for phones since I retired because I see a phone as a business tool that I don't need anymore I bought a pay per minute phone and had my long time land line number transferred to it and dropped my land line.
ReplyDeleteIt only costs me about $8.50 a month to keep my pay per minute phone active no more than I use it.
I'm aware that a lot of the younger folks use cell phones a lot, as portable computers, but I'm not willing to pay the price for doing all that shit on a cell phone at a cost of sixty bucks a month or more on a fucking small screen and keyboard.
That's what my desktop computer is for.
Susan, back when you were a college student you probably weren't aware yet that many of the people using food stamps were (and are) the working poor. I know people who are juggling multiple part-time jobs in an effort to survive but make so little money they qualify for food stamps. I think a good capsule definition of Hell would be standing at the checkout in Kroger and having total strangers telling you "Get a job, you welfare slut" when you're already juggling two or three waitressing and/or cleaning jobs.
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