6 Ways the 7th Richest Man in America Has Screwed the Poor

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/6-ways-7th-richest-man-america-has-screwed-poor



***SNIP

1. Booting Homeless Families from Priority Access to Housing Aid

At the start of his second term, the Mayor promised to reduce the rate of individual and family homelessness in the city by two-thirds in 5 years. Today, there are as many homeless New Yorkers as during the height of the Great Depression, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. The Mayor blames the recession and, strangely, the Coalition for the Homeless itself, but homelessness advocates point to a series of ill-advised policy decisions that separated homeless families from the government aid that had kept many of them housed.

***SNIP

2. No Plan to Address Homelessness

That didn't go well! This week, a report by Coalition for the Homeless found that as of November, 2,818 former Advantage families had returned to a shelter. A quarter of the families going into the city's shelters are former Advantage users, which explains, in part, why the rate of homelessness is high as during the 1930s.

***SNIP


3. Crushing the Living Wage Laws
***SNIP
While the Mayor enthusiastically supported that government intrusion into the market, he deemed the living wage to be an unacceptable government overreach. The measures were "a throwback to the era when government viewed the private sector as a cash cow to be milked, rather than a garden to be cultivated," the Mayor mused poetically. But things were serious. "The last time we really had a big managed economy was the USSR and that didn't work out so well," he warned on his radio show.

***SNIP

4. Budget Cuts

***SNIP

Every year, like clockwork, the Mayor's proposed budget contains massive proposed cuts to programs that help poor kids and parents, like child care and after school programs. Between 2007 and 2011 more than 40,000 subsidized child services spots were canned, according to the Center for New York City Affairs. "This year, the slots face the guillotine once again, with a $60 million cut to afterschool programs in Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed budget, and another $77 million to child care services," writes Abigail Kramer Child Welfare Watch.

[ananda]

1. I will never understand why people vote for plutocrats.

..

[valerief]

19. It's not the voters as much as the vote-counters. nt

[ReRe]

2. It's apparent that Michael hasn't read the New Testament...

... what was it that Jesus said about the eye of a needle and a camel? Shamey, shamey, shamey, Michael.

[OnlinePoker]

6. Why would he read the new testament? Isn't he Jewish? n/t

[ReRe]

8. Gawd... I don't know!

Me thinks I should go delete that post! I thought about that when typing it, but had no idea he was Jewish. If so, then of course he hasn't read the New Testament! Well, Jesus was born Jewish, no? If anyone is offended by my post, I will delete it immediately..just let me know!

[Heather MC]

25. I think your post is funny, don't delete

Even funnier because he is Jewish .
Although, If reading and knowing the bible was all that is needed for people to treat each other, with love and respect. Why the hell doesn't it work on Most Christians?


FYI even the Devil knows the word LOL

[ReRe]

32. OK...I'll leave it

...just because you asked me to. I'm all for funny, even if it's by some sort of stupid Freudian slip.

[Heather MC]

34. Thank you, besides the best jokes are Stupid Freudian slips

[Brigid]

27. Jesus's teachings were deeply rooted in the Old Testament.

There is much in there about how God expects the Jewish people to treat one another (and the foreigners living among them, too) and how they are to organize their society and their economy in such a way as to make things as equitable as possible. The prophets spent much more time railing about the fact that the Israelites weren't doing that than anything else. In short, Bloomie knows better.

[Smarmie Doofus]

31. +1. But I think he was absent from shul that day and I seriously doubt that he knows better. n/t

[leftynyc]

39. He's probably read it

but as he is Jewish he probably doesn't believe in what it has to say. I wasn't insulted by your post (I'm Jewish) but can't speak for everyone.

[ReRe]

40. I have a life-long Jewish friend....

...and had she seen my post, she would have laughed her ass off. College roommates.

[HiPointDem]

3. bloomberg is one of the 4 horsemen.

[DAngelo136]

4. As a resident of the People's Republic of The Bronx

I have to respond. Michael Bloomberg was seen as first as a refreshing alternative to 8 years of Giuliani fatigue. Rudolph Giuliani had managed to alienate pretty much every group in NYC, including those who had supported him in his 2nd campaign against Mayor David Dinkins.
If anyone remembers, the Democratic candidate Mark Green had eliminated himself after 2 huge political gaffes; deferring to Giuliani's trial balloon to extend his stay as Mayor past his term due to the "emergency" of the September 11th attacks and the association of his campaign distributing literature in white neighborhoods with unflattering racist caricatures of Al Sharpton and Fernando Ferrer from the New York Post. While Green was personally exonerated, the incident turned the support of Black and Hispanic communities against him from which he never recovered.
Bloomberg promised to change the way the city was run; he was going to run it like a business. Even as far as changing the mayor's office from it's traditional layout to a typical business office bullpen; not unlike his Bloomberg newsroom. http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bloomberg-bullpen-for-oval-office/58014/

His mayoralty was a direct result of the terrorist attacks on NYC; New Yorkers were afraid, tired, and wanted change from the same old politics. To be sure, there were some progressive changes. But overall, Bloomberg's New York has turned more to be a plutocratic paradise more than a city for the masses. Just as the plutocrats from the FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate)interests planned it to be when they were given control after the city's financial crisis of the '70's

I suggest you look back on that seminal moment in this city's history and you will see what they have in store for the country and the world economy. NYC is the model for the financial restructuring and political reorganization of this country and the rest of the world, IMHO.

[PDittie]

7. +1

[ReRe]

9. +1

[truebluegreen]

16. Great post.

Welcome to DU.

[SmittynMo]

5. This man is totally useless to me

It appears he has nothing better to do that screw the poor, restrict you soda intake, hide your cigarettes, etc. I'm sure there are more pressing matters going on in NY than to address these issues. What an idiot.

[Dryvinwhileblind]

10. See response #4, paragraph #3 for the reason behind "Every year, like clockwork"...

...The final push, globally, is on. Both "parties" are recruited/involved/entrenched, part and parcel. WE only have a scant half a handful of "truthful" representatives with the will to remain untainted by the payola machine. One "party", two divisions, and We're fooked on a daily basis. The allies of Warren, of Grayson, of Sanders, and those few of which I may be unaware, are now our only retort to the schemers and liars, so help Us. These true blue "friends of the People" are now the benchmark(s) by which ALL other candidates must now be measured and vetted. We will always have heavy lifting to do, for those who blindly support the plutocrats will never stop...until it's to damned late!

[truebluegreen]

18. Another great post.

Welcome to DU.

[Dryvinwhileblind]

21. Thanks

[srican69]

11. I'll vote for him in a heartbeat if he runs for president....

But it has to be on a democratic ticket...

[Remmah2]

12. A zebra can't change it's spots.

nt

[srican69]

15. politics is stranger than fiction my friend...don't count anything out

Nt

[Remmah2]

17. Politicians that hop from party to party should be scrutinized.

Skunks have stripes too.

[ProSense]

24. Bloomberg has always

been an asshole. He fools people though.

Ralph Nader Wants Mike Bloomberg to Run for President
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x794660

[freshwest]

38. Priceless. So you want an anti-establishment candidate, huh, Ralph? Thanks a lot.

[marmar]

13. Yep, just because he's got that "stopped clock" thing going on a few issues......

....... doesn't make him an ally. He is neoliberalism personified.

[bullwinkle428]

14. Ruh-roh...now you've done it!

Wait 'til someone wakes up...

[xchrom]

20. ...

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. LOL expecting some posts about "Meek Mike" are we?

This'll be interesting.

[demmiblue]

23. Heh!

[hfojvt]

36. would you like an extra large with that?

[99Forever]

26. But.. but ... but...

.. he's DEMOCRAT, doncha know? Waddaya want, Mitt Romney to take over???

[Smarmie Doofus]

28. OK. But there's way more than 6.

7. Closed hundreds of public schools and turned education over to money-mad sleazebags like Rupert Murdoch and know-nothings like Cathie Black.

Come to think of it.... he hasn't been such a bargain for the middle class either. If there IS a middle class in NYC anymore.

[slackmaster]

30. Life sucks for him because he's only the 7th richest

[dionysus]

33. don't show this to graham...

[davidthegnome]

35. Can't stand him.

It amazes me that Bloomberg has any supporters at all. Should this man ever become our Presidential nominee... I'll have no choice but to go third party.

[Uncle Joe]

37. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, xchrom.