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Notice how, more than once, the man refuses a well paying job because it is difficult to do, but also does so with the understanding that enduring that hardship
by gagi 16y ago
Notice how, more than once, the man refuses a well paying job because it is difficult to do, but also does so with the understanding that enduring that hardship would lift him out of poverty.
Notice how, instead of honorable thriftiness and hard work, the man relies on taking advantage of the system and other peoples' hard work.
It's not romantic to acknowledge this, but it is the truth. I'm hard pressed to find some thing which I can learn from this man.
- barrkel 16y agoTo what end? Why would he do that? To die marginally wealthier than he is now?
- abcxyz 16y agoTo not be a parasite on society. Unless you seriously believe that morality has no value?
- barrkel 16y agoI don't think being poor and availing oneself of charity is immoral, no. I also suspect that this guy has paid a fair share of taxes in his better years; I doubt he's actually a parasite on net.
- krschultz 16y agoSo you are saying he has a moral obligation to not make use of the charity offered that he spent his entire life paying into? Most people would argue everyone else has a moral obligation to not let our veterans starve to death after they paid taxes their whole lives, especially when you consider how little his existence actually costs us.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoAnd that, right there, is the cause of poverty in America, both for this guy and for most present day poor. The poor have their needs met. Once you reach that level, why spend precious leisure time just to become marginally wealthier?
- barrkel 16y agoPerhaps the 60-year old poor veterans have their miserly needs met, but from what I understand, I don't think it's because the marginal rewards to earning that's holding back the US's poor. How long were you homeless? How long did you go unemployed with neither savings nor education, being turned away for even the lowest things, like shelf-stacking in supermarkets? It's hard to judge another man without walking a mile in his shoes. One of the most valuable things youth have is option value: you don't know how much they'll amount to, how good they'll end up being. It gets other people to take chances on them. Come 60, you have a lot less of that; you're a known quantity.
- yummyfajitas 16y agoHow long did you go unemployed...being turned away for even the lowest things, like shelf-stacking in supermarkets? It's hard to judge another man without walking a mile in his shoes. It's not that hard, thanks to the power of statistics. For four of every five poor people, the answer is less than 26 weeks. Of the poor who spent at least 27 weeks/year searching for work, the answer is also less than 27 weeks. More than 9 in 10 of the poor who actually searched for a job for at least 27 weeks found one - just over half of worked full time, one quarter voluntarily part time, and one quarter involuntarily part time [1]. [1] The precise numbers are in this report: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2008.pdf http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpswp2008.pdf I cite 2008 because the 2009 report isn't yet released, and 2010 isn't over. [edit: Hi downmodders. Sorry for injecting facts into this discussion.]
- Tichy 16y agoI don't think you can derive the conclusion from that that if only the other ones had searched longer, they would also have found jobs. (Haven't read the report, just your comment). They might have had good reasons for assuming they would not get a job, for example. Or maybe the searched 40 weeks in vain in the previous year and didn't have it in them anymore.
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
- Tichy 16y agoMaybe we should talk about this again when you are 60.
- maxawaytoolong 16y agoI did not notice any part of the story where he was offered a well paying job, or even any job. Did I read a different story?
- fragmede 16y agoOn the two semi-reliable, specific sources of income that were mentioned, can recycling and giving blood: > But since most of the collecting was done after midnight and is arduous, I tired of the relationship and severed it. If I ever care to return to scavenging, I am assured an extra $1248 a year-my 40 percent share of the gross. > ...began selling two pints of my plasma a week-the limit-for $6 a pint. This source could add $624 to my annual income. But I found the 90-minute sessions, luring which time I was affixed to a needle, utterly boring, and I stopped. (Never mind that he would have had to stop giving blood for other reasons.) In at least those two instances, he says quit the job because it was hard work or boring. (If you're going to point out that these aren't "real" jobs, then neither is running a startup.) The author also mentioned that there were other ways he could supplement his income, but deigned not to. He comes to the conclusion, at the end of the 3rd paragraph from the end, that he could "still pass... into the sort of life I once took for granted, when all the institutions of upper middle-class life in the suburbs meant something", but that it was futile, just a wait for death; unsatisfactory. The sham that punk rock holds up: drive to work to pay for the nice car; so you can drive the nice car to work; to pay for the nice car. More eloquently coached perhaps, but I get the same sort of ennui from it as in the last paragraph - he admits to wanting to live it, without wanting to work for it.
- Tichy 16y agoAbout the blood donation, I wonder if you end up having to eat more or something like that, to compensate for the blood loss? In any case, both jobs don't sound as if they had made a big difference to his well-being.
- fragmede 16y agoKeep in mind that this article is from the 70's, his yearly budget is $1765. $1248 from cans, or $624 from plasma is a bigger deal if you look at them as a percentage of his budget. maxawaytoolong asked for examples of any job, which is what I gave.