Musings

I had to run in to Walmart for dog food, this morning.  I dropped the kids off (to much whining about a lack of time to play in the gym), then headed over to the one four miles away (instead of five).  As I got there, I had to brake to avoid hitting the guy in a wheelchair getting out of a pretty nice and well-maintained Chevy Malibu.  I maneuvered carefully around him and parked to get in the store because it's fucking thirty degrees, with a light breeze that had teeth to it.  I looked back, and the guy in the wheelchair had maneuvered toward the intersection. 

I went ahead and went in, and passed a sign begging people to apply to Walmart.  Starting pay being offered?  $11/hr, minimum. 

I went to go get cat food (they were out of what my cats need to be eating), then around to the other end of the previous aisle to get dog food. 

There was a Mexican couple with a pair of very small girls throwing tantrums.  Little ones looked very tired (mitigating circumstance), and quit the poor behavior immediately when their mama gave them a *look* that I recognized from my childhood.  And that my kids recognize and immediately react to. 

After that, the children were incredibly well behaved.  Whiny, but well behaved. 

The couple were very clearly married, going by their body language and unspoken teamwork. 

Neither spoke English at all.  Nor did they understand it. 

The man's clothes showed definite signs of hard work. 

If they're not here legally, I hope they can get a good job and get the paperwork done properly to stay.  Because they were clearly here to work for a better life, and were trying harder than a lot of  American parents I've seen with small children at Walmart. 

I paid for my dog food and left.  Wind had picked up, and was a bit more vicious with the teeth than it had been when I'd gone in the store.  And I left. 

The guy in the wheelchair was sitting inside the painted lines just outside the concrete barrier that separates the right turn lane from the lane to go straight.  Had a cardboard sign: "Homeless, anything helps, everybody needs help sometimes." 

Yep, the guy who'd gotten out of the nice Malibu.  Which didn't have anything indicating he was living in the car.  Nor did it have rental stickers anywhere.  It did have handicapped tags. 

Anybody remember the stats on the annual income for beggars?   I do.  It averages out to between $40,000 and $90,000 per year, depending on the area where the individual's begging, and their visual appeal/visible disability.  With no taxes coming out.  Even the low end is more than my household makes per year, and I sincerely doubt he was making toward the low end, missing a leg. 

Help.  Walmart's hiring.  Even if you don't want to work at Walmart, there are other places hiring.  Even hiring amputees.  There is training available for anyone who wants to work. 

Help.  Sure.  He didn't want help.

He wanted suckers who can't or won't think for themselves, and let themselves be led around by the feelz and the guilt ingrained by the class-warfare-touting socialist/communist Left.