Larger penises? I think there might be some actual truth to that because I've noticed that Canadians do tend to be, on average, larger than Americans and Europeans. (And here y'all thought I came here for the universal health care!
)
The thing that's really scary, I find, is credit and how the poorest people tend to pay the highest interest rates. The credit companies can argue that's because they're a higher risk -- but then, if that's the case, why give them credit at all? It seems like a flimsy excuse to prey upon those most vulnerable. A few years back, a woman on family assistance, also working as an escort, asked my husband and I for some advice (which of course she didn't take). She pretty much bared her situation to us, and we were floored by the interest rates she was paying. There's absolutely no way she could get out of debt, even if she tried, short of winning a lottery. Every time she worked, she went shopping or to the casino. This seemed very wrong-minded to us, but on the other hand, we really couldn't see any way to tell her how she could do things differently and get out of debt and out from under huge accruing interest.
Did anyone here see the article in yesterday's Star, Mom struggles on $1,008 a month (
http://www.thestar.com/article/171169). On the one hand, you feel bad for the mother, and the numbers are daunting, but then there's the photo. Here's a woman who claims she can't afford to send her kid to a movie or let him play sports because she's so broke... but she's wearing make-up, jewelry, reasonably nice clothing, and her hair is died in some crazy scheme. Also, the photo is supposedly shot in her apartment, but in the background, through a reflection in the mirror, you can see someone sitting at a desk with a computer and a speaker. It looks like this person is surfing the web.
Now, I'm not for a minute disputing that it would be tough to get by on the type of money she gets, but myself, I'm self-employed, and although we're a 2-income family, we need my income to get by. I know what I have to forego to be financially responsible.
It isn't politically correct to say, but perhaps a key factors in poverty really are decision making skills and self discipline. And it's getting harder all the time, as we're bombarded on every side with consumerism to the point where spending oneself into debt on credit seems like a normal, rational thing to do. In the US, they want people to save for their retirement, save for their healthcare, save for their homes, save for their kids' education, and still go out and buy, buy, buy like good and patriotic little consumers. For the majority of the population, that simply cannot work.
..c..
