What advice would you offer the Kentucky waitress?

interesting article on the lack of economic recovery in rural America. https://apple.news/A8LKPBsQHRACfWMPQT-i9vA
The waitress is barely making it and on food stamps. Does she really have much of a way out of her situation? She probably gets Medicare, would taking it away help her out?

What would you advise her to do to step out of poverty?

 

Cut everything to bare necessities, get a cheap prepaid cell phone you don't need the latest I phone or Samsung. Only get WiFi, you don't t need cable TV, there are many sites that show TV and movies for free. Buy name brand clothes at Goodwill or thrift shops and resell on poshmark, free shipping and handling. Drive part time for Lyft or Uber. There are literally thousands of things she could do, you just can't be lazy.

My kids always want to go to the coast, they have two drones and charge surf fisherman $2 to take their line out further than they can cast. Think outside the box.

 

Well actually that would be medicaid my advice would depend entirely on how old she is. 20 something ot the local trade school and learn how to program CNC lathes. It isn't that hard, and places would bend over backward to hire a female CNC programmer especially of she was good at it.

 

That depends on which CNC language, plus it is still a good old boys network. I had one young female working for me, she showed promise and was doing well. She made one mistake and they moved her to Assembly, boss thought she'd be happier working with other women.

My advice would be to learn welding, I've been a certified Mig/Tig/Plasma welder for twenty plus years...It pays well, and there are many more opportunities than CNC's

 

There is such a demand for machinists, that is great advice. Now, she may have to leave Clay County, but still she would be swooped up.

 

She already has 4 kids and another on the way. Tough to raise any size fam on $2400 a mo, even in clay county n

 

Interestingly I advise my nieces to learn to weld. I wish they would listen...

 

First advice is quit having kids if you can't afford them. By the way the article says she has five with a sixth on the way. It also doesn't say if she is married or single, Im assuming single since it states no other income. Sometimes you reap what you sow.

 

They got to break in sometime, Ive seen at least three different CNC languages none of them are difficult. And the better programming machines have a check program that will show you any errors you might make, and that was before I retired five years ago. Mike Rowe is starting a program now for people to learn about anything. By the way my daughter has a GED and no college she now is making 85k a year base plus bonuses as a Porsche service writer. That was almost exclusively male as little as a decade ago.

 

30 years old with 5 kids and one on the way and looks like Ma Kettle, no skills beyond breeding with men who aren't her husband, and she wants advice?

She's about 5 and a half kids too late for any advice. Of course she's not thinking like that. She's paid by the state to be a brood mare and pump out welfare kids. She doesn't need a husband because uncle Sam is her husband.

 

I would say:

Enjoy the life you chose for yourself.

 

I would say: Its too late for you, it might not be too late for your children.
Teach them what you were not taught: USE PROTECTION WHEN ****ING.
Have them follow the tech school etc advice in the thread above.

 

Isn't the real question why she's in poverty in the first place? Why do you think she's poor?

 

Become self employed.

 

Maybe not the real question, but a legitimate one. Obviously none of us know her nor her situation. Could be generational poverty, decades on the dole or simply a case of improper priority on education. She obviously works hard.

What do you think?

 

Work more hours, don't have children yet. Spend the least amount of money possible and start trying to obtain more marketable skills

 

Well you posted an article that provided very little information; too little to properly diagnosis it. However since you did post the article with those short comings, I assumed you had some idea of advice to offer yourself?

 

First is stop having children she can’t afford. You the know the estimates on the cost of raising a child?

 

Okay first move stop having kids. Second, get your husband to work. If you are not married why in the hell are you having kids if you can't afford them?

 

Welding is a tough job. I would advise them instead to look into NDT. Same wheelhouse better money and less physical and strenuous.

 

Also instill in them not have kids until they are happily married. I don't know why people fumble with this.

 

Fair enough. At this point she needs to focus solely on her kids. Make sure they get a good education, teach them to work hard. Fight for good schools, health care and wages. She has a lot to overcome, but must make a better life for her kids - outside of rural KY B

 

12 hours a day already....

 

First, stop making bad decisions (pregnant with her sixth child?).

Second, get out of where she lives. If not, go spend some time with Vanda Rice and create better opportunities.

 

Chances are, she was born there and her parents or grandparents(some relatives), moved there to work in mines or some industry that is long gone.

While Trump did help to bring back jobs by backing off some of the regulations holding up new hires and raises, he cannot tell businesses where to invest their money and expect them to follow.

Trump wanted to do work on infrastructure. What held it up? Congress has to approve and appropriate money, right? Trump, though many think he is, is not a dictator.

If the kind of cutting he has done is indicative of what he will try to cut from food stamps, with the help of Congress, 'cause again, he can't do it on his own, it will likely cut the fat from the program and offer a better program for those who need them and save some tax dollars.

She should attempt to receive some child support from her children's father(s). That is a fairly low cost to her. She might then, be able to cut back a few hours, get her high school diploma from visiting the state's job service office, then apply for a receive some training that will get her a little better job.

Once she does that, she might look into a bit more education. In the mean time, please don't have any more children. She never should have had any in the first place. Don't they sell condoms in Kentucky? I'm fairly sure she can get free birth control pills.