Welfare used to be called Charity

Living away from the United States since 1993, I am reminded of the phrase, "The mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain" I am not sure if Blue and Red makes Purple. Right now I am an American who is looking for Americans to be doing what needs to be done.

When my family left Oklahoma in the dust bowl after selling everything off, they headed to California. They were called "Okies" and looked down upon by people thinking they were going to steal other people's jobs.... Does this sound familiar? My Irish relatives heard the same before them and this has been the American way since the beginning.

They said the assistance they received when the reached California was called Charity in those days though it would be seen as modern day welfare.

It was embarrassing for him to be on charity so he worked hard and my father worked as young as six years old picking prunes to lamp light. And I also started working at 16 and have never stopped working.

I do not agree places like Vermont who contributes the least should have as much say in elections as California who contributes the most.

2022 (most recent) Gross domestic product (GDP) in the United States By state:

• Highest: California ($3,598,102,700,000)
• Lowest: Vermont ($40,617,100,000)

"The seven most populous states, California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio are also the seven biggest contributors to U.S. GDP, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Yet, California is way ahead of the competition as far as per-capita contribution goes. While 11.7 percent of Americans live in California, the state contributed 14.2 percent to GDP in Q1 of 2023. New York state, where 5.9 percent of Americans live, had a share of 8.1 percent of GDP that quarter. Florida, which has a 6.7 percent share of population, only contributed 5.5 percent of GDP."

I am from Napa which I believe means "Plentiful" in Wappo language who were the Indians who kept the Mexicans out.The Napa Valley is one of California's longest inhabited areas. Archaeological surveys indicate 10,000 years of uninterrupted habitation. "It was a paradise - a cultivated paradise where one only had to reach out their hand to eat. A place rich in beauty, water and food," stated the oral history of Native American elder Jim Big Bear King.

But surrounded by cities with Spanish names like San Francisco, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Cruz somehow we forget it was once the United States of Mexico.

"Yukian speakers controlled the north coast ranges as much as 8,000 years ago. Eventually, other Native groups moved into the Napa Valley, reducing the Yukian domain. Approximately 3,300 years ago, the Miwok gained a foothold in former Yukian territory. Later, Hokan speakers (the Pomo) expanded southward into Sonoma and Napa Counties. The Wappo re-established control of Napa Valley about 1,500 years ago, and their territory remained roughly the same until the 1800s.After the Spanish and Mexican invasion in 1823, the tribes were nearly decimated by forced marches and smallpox. When forced to relocate to various missions for religious indoctrination, many fled to friendlier territory. In Alexander Valley, Clear Lake and Sonoma County, Wappos intermarried with other tribes, and blended with the European invaders." https://www.suscolcouncil.org/about-us/firstpeopleshistory/

The nonsense about deporting illegal immigrants from land that was once theirs, I am reminded about how much they contribute to the GDP in comparison to our Welfare Bill as tax payers.

"Given their productivity and their participation rate in the workforce, Mexican undocumented immigrants are significant economic contributors to the American economy. In 2019 alone, Mexican undocumented households earned almost $92 billion in household income and contributed $9.8 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, even assuming conservative estimates that only half of all undocumented households filed taxes. This is in addition to the $11.7 billion in contributions to Social Security and $2.8 billion to the Medicare Trust Fund that were made by or on behalf of employers of Mexican undocumented immigrants. After taxes, Mexican undocumented immigrants held more than $82.2 billion in spending power, money that often goes back into local economies as they spend on housing, consumer goods, and services.

https://research.newamericaneconomy.org/report/contributions-of-undocumented-immigrants-by-country/

In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spent $1.19 trillion on more than 80 different welfare programs. That represents almost 20% of total federal spending and a quarter of tax revenues in 2022 or $9,000 spent per American household."

One of the biggest challenges for Americans is that they do not have much in the bank.

According to the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances, the median savings account balance for all families was $8,000 in 2022.

So, when the price of anything goes up, they feel it.

But everyone wants to be a king in America. With the enormous houses, the enormous cars, the enormous portions of food.

By contrast though the Japanese have 1 quadrillion yen ($9.2 Trillion) in National Debt, they have 2 quadrillion yen ($18.4 Trillion) in savings. If you divided it into US $1 dollar bills you could stack it to the moon and back three times or place side by side and wrap the earth 70,000 times...

Savings by Education...we need to invest more in education in the US

"Higher levels of education signal higher savings balances, as Americans with college degrees save far more than those without degrees. And it seems college completion makes a difference, as those with college degrees have a median of $23,370 in transaction accounts, much more than the $5,200 median of those with some college but no degree.

High school completion is another key indicator, as high school graduates have more than double the median transaction account balances of those with no high school diploma – $3,030 versus $900."

https://www.usnews.com/banking/articles/the-average-savings-account-balance

Should there be for profit prisons which is perhaps the main reason for the treacherous gangs being held in the US:

"Under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, there is an average of 28,289 people held daily in immigrant detention, and it is estimated 79% of this population is held in privately run facilities.4

Political influences have been instrumental in securing the growth of for-profit private prisons. Because the prison population grew in 2022 for the first time in a decade, the privatization debate will likely intensify as opportunities for the prison industry may increase as corporations seek to make profits in related corrections areas."

https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/private-prisons-in-the-united-states/

I grew up with Ronald Reagan as president who was once the governor of California. While I felt safe growing up with him in the Oval office, he seemed to increase spending and lowered taxes which does not add up. He also reduced, as governor, the threshold for those in mental institutions and released many people into the streets which are the people living in tents in San Francisco.

Do you want to make America Great Again? Get off your butts and go outside and pick up the garbage which is everywhere. Fix the cracks in the street which have been neglected for too long.

President Reagan also had a kitchen cabinet of friends who believed that you can do anything in America if you work for it.

Rather than pointing fingers of blame at everyone and hoping to kick out the people who are working, call Welfare Charity again and educate people so they can get jobs. Teach people to save so when the price of anything goes up they don't panic because they do not have anything saved in the bank. Stop driving your cars and commute. Go on a diet. DO SOMETHING. Stop posting on social media, like this article and DO SOMETHING about all of it. Or.....do nothing and watch the pendulum swing so violently in the other direction, you won't know what to do.

Dr. Maya Angelou quotes below and once said, "I have a thesis and that is; that human beings are more alike then we are unalike. That is what being an American is like. We look so differently and yet we are all Americans. That is such an exciting thesis."

"I am an American and most of the time I am proud of it. Even when I am displeased with what my country is doing. I am still an American who is displeased. Fortunately being an American I do not have to whimper and I don't have to whine, I have the right to protest and I like it."

"If you are not angry, you are either a stone or too sick to be angry. You should be angry. Mind you, you mustn't be bitter. Bitterness is like cancer, it eats upon the host, it does nothing to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger. You write it, you paint it, you dance it, you march it, you vote it, you do everything about it, you talk it. Never stop talking it!"