The free ride for Katrina parasites is over May 30th

Why should any of us give a fuck?

They had 4 years to figure that out.

$50/month x 12 months = 1200 dollars per year x 4 years = $2,400 dollars.

Yeah, she really can't help herself.

Scorp - easing up on those regulations will guarantee that the next time a storm comes, and not even one as strong as Katrina, will flatten those houses causing more problems than before.

We have those regs for a reason. It's to keep the folks that buy the houses safe.

Basic essentials, man!

How much lifestyle do you expect them to sacrifice for self reliance?!?

$50?

I've got a prepaid cellphone, and if I don't use it very often (and I don't), I only have to put $25 on it every two months, just so my minutes don't expire.

You can buy a phone from 7-Eleven where the minutes don't expire for 365 days, and only spend $25 a year.


And cellphone plans are a lot more competitive in the States.

My plan is $90/month, with texting, browsing, etc, etc.

My OLD plan, with only texting, and 100 min per month was $50/month.

Thats why I said $50/month.

You probably have a landline right? Well, I figure these people don't, so they use their cell phones a lot more.

See, that's the difference between the US and Canada. We don't expect our poor people to lower their standard of living. That's why we have so many of them.

Makes sense. You probably use your phone more than I do.

Nope, I just don't use it that much. My calls are mostly "Coffee/dinner? Sure, where and when?" or "Hey, I slept in and I'll be there in twenty minutes. You guys want anything from Tim Hortons?"

Yeah, because if there's just one word that I get when reading the article, it's "thrifty."

Quiet, grownups are talking.

That's their problem to solve. If they haven't solved it after 4 years then too fucking bad. Cry me a river.

I use my phone a lot for work.

So, naturally the minutes would be up....along with the cost.

But my first plan, the one I paid $50/month for, I had 100 min, which isn't a lot.

Cell phone plans ARE expensive. But, most people HAVE them for work and such. If you live in a government funded trailer and you can't find a decent job, you don't need a fucking cell phone.

Yeah - they had 4 years.
Galveston and Keema and the rest of the Texas coast got less than ONE year to get their problems solved.
Galveston isn't 100% yet, has a BIG income problem - no tourists coming in and definitely no big name Hollywood types coming along to help save those Galveston historical landmarks - but they are still working on it.
Where is Brad Pitt and the rest of Hollywood to help Galveston get back to its pre-Ike grandeur?

Only for the sake of argument....

If you're putting out resumes, potential employers need to call you somehow. And I doubt government trailers come with phones.

Prepaid cell and no car?

Goddamn! You SUCK at life.

I'm happy with my life. You're obviously not.


I win.

On the one hand, I sympathize, but on the other, I have to wonder why they haven't been able to get new housing, or been able to use they monetary assistance to move to another area where they might find employment and housing.

What are us taxpayers sposed ta do?

A tad off topic - Times are hard everywhere, how about giving us taxpayers a break?

Not a handout, a bail out or free housing just let us keep a bit more of the money we earn.

$40k, you say? God DAMN. I gotta consider movin'. Here a shitty starter home that needs a fair amount of work and is in a shitty neighborhood will set you back $125K--and that's a freaking steal.

Gotta wonder about the job market around these $40k homes. If $400 a month for rent is doable and the tenant agrees to repair the home then it may be a worthwhile investment. A quick run through a mortgage calculator shows it'd take about $10k down and less than $200 a month for five years before you'd own the property outright and have a positive cash flow of $400 a month, or $4800 a year and that's for only one property, add nine more and we're talking $48k a year plus you'd own the land. Of course that's with a consistent rent of $400 a month. That could go down but it could go up.

Not the best investment but far from the worst.

Plus, I don't know what it's like in Louisiana, but in my area, a cell phone can actually be a lot cheaper than a landline.

I really hope they can save Seawolf Park's USS Stewart DE-238 and USS Cavalla SS-244 on Pelican Island. They're very high on my "cool shit to see" list.

They're both saved, but there are still repairs going on from the storm.

I would say something racist but I won't.

That might have been an argument 15 years ago when cellphones were an expensive thing.

Now they're cheap as chips. Cheaper than a pocket radio for a basic no-camera model.

Good idea.

Never understood why you must make everything personal.

Like I pointed out earlier, cell phones can run you anywhere from $25 bucks per month, to $90 per month.

Not exactly 'cheap.'

Or $25 every two months.

Or $100 a year.


Very cheap.

Most poor people can afford $25 a month. Hell I've seen homeless people with those pay as you go phones.

If your paying $90 a month you've either got multiple phones on one account or you have the overpriced "extras" like $20 a month texting which is price gouging anyway way you look at it.