Well, first of all, I'd like to direct a couple of questions to AWG, who has in my absence from Mudcat asked what I have done to help folks are poor... Apparently, you have not read this entire thread so I'm not going to rewrite pages of stuff I'ver allready posted about not only what I have done but what I continue to do... It's all been laid out here in this thread...

I won't comment on your background of helping folks by renting them "low-cost" housing but when I was a social worker I had a lotta landlords who did the same who I set my clients up with but guess what??? These landlords weren't doing this because they wanted to help poor people... They made money... Only you can answer the question of what your motives were and, frankly, considering many of theings you have said here, I might no believe you if you were to say that your sole motivation was to help poor people...

But enough of that housekeeping...

Ahhhhhh, likie I have pointed out over and over, child care subsidies should be obne of our highest priorities in a war on poverty...

Think about this:

Over the last 40 years women have been forced into the work force so that families would have the "better life"... This wasn't about feminism... It was about money... But the "male dominated" sopciety has never held up its collective end and thus women have continued to the the "care givers" anmd even in middle class families the woman has had two jobs: employeee and care giver... America has never really wrapped its arms around the males chipping in... Oh sure, there are a few men who have gotten it but it isn't, what you say, a popular concept with most males...

Now, when the male leaves the family (for whatever reason) you have now a family with only one bread-winner who is now having to perform the two step without the income... This, unfortuantely, akes up the bulk of America's poor... So here we have a woman, who is trying to play by these screwed up rules (legal and societal), working for low wages and trying to make ends meet and the rub is ***child care***... There isn't enough $$$ to pull it off... Most women want to do right by their kids but the system is failing them (and their kids) badly...

The Welfare Refore legislation that was passed under Bill Clinton in 1996 was the most punitive bill that the American male dominated Congress has passed against women in my life time... It, in essenece, said something similar to what the Emancipation Proclamation said ion "You got nuthin', you ain't gonna get nuthin' but yer free.."

Free???

Free to do exactly what???

The law forces woman to make very undesirable, anti-faimly choices... Thrwo in the decreasing pool on money for child care to assist these women, the Welfare Reform may be the cruelest piece of legislation ever passed in out country's history...

I mean, you folks do the math...

The minimum wage had lost 42% of it's value since 1969 and now we have a male dominated (Taliban) system that is intent on punishing women and their kids for what??? Playing by the rules???

This is a stacked deck...

You wanta help???

Well, cloes the loophole that allows primarilly the rich to evade paying $100B a year in off-shore schemes anbd put some of that money in supporting women and their ***families***...

This is what "family values" is all about...

Bobert