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> This country was founded on people having very little walking very long distances to build homesteads from nothing. You mean all those homesteaders that kill
by king_jester 13y ago
> This country was founded on people having very little walking very long distances to build homesteads from nothing.
You mean all those homesteaders that killed native people and stole their land with the backing the government?
> I'll agree there are some people who truly can't make the changes I indicated; we have a social safety net for them, and I do put in a weekly effort to help them. Most who whine "I can't" can, they just won't.
The social safety net is far from adequate enough to negate these problems, assuming one is even able to qualify and access those programs.
> Obviously there are exceptions, and a short aphorism of "you'll do it if you want it bad enough" is not expected to have encyclopedic thoroughness covering those few genuine cases who really, truly, can't; it's directed at the other 99.99% whose only real barriers to success is themselves.
Do you really believe that 99.99% of folks who have a shitty situation just can't muster the effort to change things? Do you really believe that people WANT to live that way? To constantly be uncertain if they are going to be able to work, to be able to get health care, to eat, to have a home, to not face imminent violence? Western society is not organized for the welfare of the people in it and there are social and institutional forces that actively keep people from the things we have been talking about.