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I feel like a lot of people here don't understand this because they've never been poor in America. I would never want to deny help to someone who needs it, but
by r_smart 10y ago
I feel like a lot of people here don't understand this because they've never been poor in America. I would never want to deny help to someone who needs it, but as most of these social programs are structured, they're a trap. I was poor for most of my life. It was making the conscious decision to not be poor, making a plan and working my ass off that let me get out of poverty. Nothing got in my way other than my own ability to succeed. Nobody tried to stop me (well some friends and family were less than encouraging, but I'm used to that).
So people read your comment, and it sounds like a fiction to them, hence the downvotes.
N.B.: Yes I took education loans made available by the government. But most of it wasn't subsidized since it was my 2nd bachelor's degree, and the rates on that stuff is usury currently. I don't really want to get into a debate about that stuff, but just mention it as I figure somebody might ask. In a world without readily available loans, I would like to think I would have just made a different plan.
- dreta 10y agoPeople like you made US what it is today, and instead of elevating success stories like yours people would rather complain that life is unfair, and that others have it better. Parents or grandparents of people who are the middle class today went through what you did, only a few decades ago.
- r_smart 10y agoThanks for the compliment. I certainly wasn't trying to paint myself as the poster boy for anything, but I think my story can be interesting for people who haven't experienced poverty, especially because I bought into a lot of the kind of thinking you describe, and letting that go was a large part of getting out of being poor. I actually am a second generation immigrant (my mother is from Panama), and even after my parents split we had a pretty hard-scrabble life with her working for minimum wage, and my father being self-employed and not much better off. Still they never took advantage of welfare programs (well, not until after I was raised, but that's a different conversation), and there was a pride associated with not doing it. It'd be foolish to say that people should never take help if it's available, but I think it's often overlooked just what a deleterious effect it can have on a person's morale. Further, as the old saying goes: Necessity is the mother of invention. People will live in whatever situation they can tolerate, so changing what you can tolerate is the necessary first step to improving your lot in life. *edit: changed 'and even after we split' to 'and even after my parents split' because I clearly lost focus on what I was writing in the middle of that sentence.