What is your opinion on American "work culture" and working conditions?

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I did just that. I joined the military, took advantage of the GI bill, cobbled together grants, fellowships and scholarships, worked as a research assistant and went to a state university. I also lived at home instead of in the dorm. Graduated with no debt and with a STEM degree.

However I do not buy the lifting yourself up by your bootstraps since I am well aware that I wouldn’t be able to do what I have done without help from others.

We should be willing to help others and let ourselves be helped. I sometimes don’t get this rugged individualism.
 
Some mothers are single, and we Catholics are spiritually obligated to support them when they choose life.
Some mothers have husbands who left them with only meager child support payments.
Some mothers have fled domestic violence.
Some mothers are widowed, as mine was when my dad died very suddenly.
Some mothers need to pull in a second income because the father’s doesn’t stretch far enough.
 
blackforest said:
Some mothers are single, and we Catholics are spiritually obligated to support them when they choose life.
Some mothers have husbands who left them with only meager child support payments.
Some mothers have fled domestic violence.
Some mothers are widowed, as mine was when my dad died very suddenly.
Some mothers need to pull in a second income because the father’s doesn’t stretch far enough.
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And some Catholics deny that need due to poverty is even a factor. Good post.
 
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blackforest said:
Some mothers are single, and we Catholics are spiritually obligated to support them when they choose life.
Some mothers have husbands who left them with only meager child support payments.
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The government actually already will support them through the well established Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, under those circumstances in America
 
Sarcelle said:
So we could go back to the affirmative action of the past which preferentially hired men, especially white men?
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Preferably not, although the only hiring men part would be less harmful to families than the discrimination of today. Not a fan of the racist bit of course.
 
If the husband is laid off, HE will raise the children while his wife works outside the home.

🙂

Yes, I realize that fortunes change and it is indeed sad when a woman has to go back to a job outside the home in order for her family to pay their bills. I have seen women who didn’t have to do this, though. Usually in those cases, the husband takes on several part-time or temp jobs to bring in cash, and the couple drastically cuts expenses, eliminating anything that isn’t necessary for health and safety. Sometimes the couple actually sells their home and moves back in with parents until husband is able to find a well-paying job again.

And sometimes, couples are able to plan for job losses (as I mentioned earlier in this thread with 2nd line managers, who expect to lose their jobs every few years). They save a large amount of the husband’s paycheck to live on when he is let go. They don’t buy anything unless they have cash (and that includes a house). They live much more modestly than they have to (some women are very talented at find beautiful clothing for themselves and their children at thrift stores). They don’t indulge in any excess, and they put various insurance coverage, especially health insurance, at the very top of their Budget and make SURE that the insurance premium bills get paid.

I’m not saying any of this is easy or fun. But there are plenty of people who manage and are able to pull themselves out of financial disasters that would leave others on public aid for years.
 
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I think the only way to even begin solving the problem is to immediately halt ALL immigration into the US, deport all illegals, and deport 95% of legal immigrants. Immigrants drive down the costs of labor and drive up the housing prices. Also stop printing money and devaluing the currency through inflation (inflation being the targetted robbery of wages by elite government and bankers.)

Probably some more tariffs would also be good.
 
Augustinian said:
The government actually already will support them through the well established Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, under those circumstances in America
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It’s interesting when persons can decide one day that individual charity is the sacred cow of their faith, and the next day see the government role in a difficulty. j/s
 
Sarcelle said:
They could do what I did, which was join the military. But not all or not even most can do or want to do that.
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This is not a dig at you. You should be proud of your service. However, it should also be noted that the military being turned into a gigantic welfare program for the poor is a very bad idea.
 
The luxury box! Or a concrete block apartment. Modern architecture takes us ALL where we want to live! 😉
 
Excellent. I’ve heard that same admonition many times from Christian financial advisers.

I think that many men have bought into the idea that both husband and wife WILL work. The very idea of taking care of a woman and children financially seems chauvinistic to a lot of men, who have been brainwashed with the idea that all normal women WANT to have their own careers and lives and that children are better off in a good daycare setting than with a mother who is frustrated and unhappy in her role as a full-time stay-at-home homemaker.
 
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Very good! This is realistic and should be happening more.

The problem is, why should someone work for a small wage when they can sell drugs for the local mobster and not only earn big bucks, but drive a sick car and wear the latest fashions?

Too many kids fall for that, and often, it runs in their family. There are situations in our town where the fourth generation is learning the ropes of running or selling drugs for the mob. They have never finished school or worked in a regular job.

How can we convince people that most who try this will end up murdered?

So sad.
 
I understand.

The military taught me a lot though and changed me for the better.
 
I mentioned the “Little House” books earlier as a concrete example of how families worked from dawn to dusk.

They definitely didn’t count on having neighbors and relatives help out–they knew that they were responsible for their own lives.

But…throughout the books are stories of neighbors helping out, relatives coming to the rescue, and even strangers lending a hand.

One of the most famous characters that Laura created from a compilation of neighbors was Mr. Edwards. On the television show, he is fleshed out fully, but in the novels, he appears when needed, and always at a time when the Ingalls family is desperate for some help.

And of course, one of the most thrilling (and true!) stories in her books is about her future husband, Almanzo Wilder, and his friend Cap Garland (who was just a teenager at the time). The two young men took a dreadful chance to travel away (on horseback) from the town between blizzards and locate a settler who was rumored to have a store of seed wheat (which the townspeople are using to make a sour-dough bread–for most families, the only food that they had during the 7 months of the Hard Winter). The two men made it back alive with the wheat, but Almanzo’s feet were frost-bitten and he limped and had pain for the rest of his long life.

The point is, in the U.S., “Rugged Individualism” has always been accompanied by “Being Neighborly.”

We should always help each other when given the opportunity. Our parishes provide many opportunities to help those who have fallen upon hard times. I think the St. Vincent de Paul Society has many ways that we can all help those who need a hand, not just a handout.
 
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Are you talking about H1B workers?

Most of the horror stories about woefully underpaid workers imported from abroad have to do with H1B workers. A H1B visa by the way is a non immigrant visa. Highly skilled immigrants often earn as much or if not more than native born citizens so I don’t get your point of them driving down salaries.

I do get your point of them driving up real estate prices. However even highly paid skilled native born workers can also drive up the price of real estate.

As a legal immigrant myself, should I be deported?
 
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Peeps said:
My older daughter works long hours at several gigs in the entertainment industry, and she still finds time to have a Quiet Time with God every day, and share her insights with me and her friends. And one of her habits is to pray before every show–not in such a way as to make a show of it in front of the performers, but quietly, in the dark wings of the stage. God is there, and she recognizes Him and asks for His blessings on the show and all involved. Who knows how God is answering those invisible prayers?
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Good on her, keeping the faith in a career path that frequently spurns God.

I’ve personally known a few Godly men and women in entertainment, but they walk a difficult path, and all kudos to them.

It can be lonely.

🌹
 
I hope you’re just kidding.

Deporting all our legal immigrants would bring much of the American economy to a grinding halt.

Many of our workplaces employ large numbers of (legal) immigrants, who accept a lower wage while they are training for a higher-paying career and while their children are attending school with the hope of someday having a better job and helping their families.

And considering how few young people there are entering the workplace (abortion has destroyed around 50 million of our people, who would normally be replacing older Americans), we would simply not have enough people to do the work that needs to be done to sustain our nation.

I don’t know enough about economics to comment on the “robbery of wages by elite government and bankers,” or about tariffs.
 
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program is paid for by taxpayers like me and all the other Americans. The money isn’t just pulled out of the air.

If people want to contribute more money than they have already paid in taxes, that’s wonderful. But it is their decision. I personally agree with many here that those of us who have been fortunate in our decisions and our lot in life should dig deep and help fund church and secular charitable organizations that we trust, along with paying our taxes.

I wish that the government programs could be discontinued because so much of our tax dollars never makes it to the actual poor, but is used to pay the salaries of the administrators of the programs and for the infrastructure and promotion of the programs, which is often mired down in massive bureaucracy (which cost so much). Private programs can be run so much cheaper and the people who run the programs actually get to be part of the distribution of the goods and services to the poor. OTOH, privately-run charities do tend to struggle along, and if the administrator(s) leave, sometimes the organization flounders and dies.
 
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