What is it with redneck, white-trash, goldigging, system-scammers?! (Page 2)

DP aside, you win at modding.

It's tough to slap an "appropriate" label on these people.  Because so many labels tie to race and/or region.  But there are "trash", "redneck"... whatever you want to call it types of people all across the country that are in ALL races and regions.  From Maine to California, North Dakota to Texas, you can find this type of people.

So my intention was never to be insulting to southerners.  Maybe if I just left out the labels it would've been better.  In fact, I really should have.  After reading my original post it does certainly sound like people from the northeast are smarter, more cultured, and better than southerners.  And that's not right.  There are just as many types of people as I describe in New York and New Jersey as there are in the south.  It's mostly cultural and not geographically-specific.

It would be tough to eliminate the offensive label.  I should have tried harder.  For that, I apologize.

You are so very right!  See my post above.  I failed to write the original post properly and it certainly does come across as offensive.  I've been living here for 20 years now and it really has nothing to do with the state or region of the country.  It's a cultural thing and you can find the family type I describe anywhere in the country.  I shouldn't have dissed NC like I did.  I actually love this state!

Sorry.

It's stories like this that make me realize why people think I am crazy to have given both my parents and my older sister durable general powers of attorney.

Yes, you read that right...my parents and my sister can "be me".  They could wipe me out tomorrow if they wanted to.  They could sell my homes.  The list of things you can do with a durable general power of attorney is INSANE.  But it's absolutely necessary when you are a single person deploying with the military.  Someone needs to be able to "be you" if you can't.

But they won't use it unless they have to.  And I know they won't.  And people say I'm too trusting.  But I absolutely positively know they would never take my money.  I have joint accounts with my mom that aren't my money...and she knows I won't wipe out the account.  My name is only on it for some weird inheritance purpose.  I am even an authorized user on my parents' credit card.  And they know I'll only charge things when I'm allowed.  For example, my family is weird...instead of sending you a check for Christmas they say, "Spend XXX on our credit card."  Rather smart really...same difference to me and they get the miles!  Last year I actually needed cash for a house closing so they wrote me a check instead, but usually it's money on their card.  To the point where money on mom and dad's credit card has become a unit of currency in our family.  Sister owes me money?  Rather than write a check she just transfers some of her money on mom's credit card to me so now I have a little bit more than what mom gave me.  But still...this is apparently a HUGE level of trust that doesn't exist in other families.

Like any family we have disagreements (mostly centering around me being the spendthrift of the family) but at the end of the day I know that I can trust my parents and sister with all my finances and that if I ever really got in trouble my parents would bail me out.  In fact, they loaned me the money to get out from under my house in Florida....and didn't even set a payback date.

It just floors me to hear stories like the OP's because it just isn't how I was raised.  Maybe it's a bit simpler when it's just my parents and my sister...no extraneous ex's or multiple siblings...but still...

I will also admit that when I read the title I thought you were writing another verse to Heywood Banks' "Phillip Pharr"

I might as well add my "family" into the mix. My brother's in-laws: 9 kids between the ages of 12 and 20-something, 3 grandkids all living in a trashed house. I believe 2 children work - the rest draw "disability", deal drugs, shoplift, go to jail, party all night and sponge off of boyfriends (8 of the children are girls, 2 of which were pregnant before they turned 15).

  They come to my brother's house every holiday unannounced, sometimes at 3am, eat everything, steal whatever they can, steal their mother's car to go shoplift and stay for as long as they like...or until the food runs out. How's that for trash?!

"Stereotypes" are stereotypes for a reason... it's generally true. In this particular instance though, it really is unfair to slap any label on what ever this is.

Laziness cuts across all cultural, geographical, and social types. Mooching does the same. Fact of the matter is, there are very hard working people is every class you want to point out, and there are lazy scavengers in every group as well. It isn't a North or South thing, or rich or poor thing... it's just a people thing.

I honestly believe, that as the word of "The American Dream" got out around the world, it attracted the hardest working, most independent people that wanted to choose their own destiny. I firmly believe it also attracted the best scavengers from around the world that wanted to pick all the gold out of the overflowing trash pile. And hence, here we are.