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I'd ask what the other 83.7 percent are doing right, and seek to emulate them rather than just sit on my duff and whine. edit: maybe I'm predisposed to being '

by lwhalen 13y ago

I'd ask what the other 83.7 percent are doing right, and seek to emulate them rather than just sit on my duff and whine. edit: maybe I'm predisposed to being 'less compassionate' about stuff like this because I have indirect experience seeing a similar pattern with... close family members. $family_member had all the same or very similar 'chances' as I did in life vis a vis education, upbringing, etc, but instead chose a drug-based lifestyle leeching off parents, friends, etc. Said family member, in their mid 20s, is unemployed, living with parents, indulging in all sorts of recreational chemistry, and is predisposed to whine about 'how unfair' it all is, 'how depressed the job market is', and so forth as the reason they can't find a job, can't keep steady work when they do find one, etc. In this personal, anecdotal case, the problem isn't their environment, it's them. I see similar patterns in the WaPo story: even if your girlfriend breaks up with you, you still get your butt into work the next day. No whining, no excuses. It might not be the Greatest Job Ever (tm), but it's better (IMHO) than sitting around leeching off family.

abraham_s 13y ago
@lwhalen I am not really disagreeing with you. I have also met a lot of people like this. I was trying to point out 1) How it has become really hard to work your way out of poverty with an entry level job these days. 2) How a life of constant failure and lack of guidance leads to personality trait which seems to almost predisposed towards failure. "even if your girlfriend breaks up with you, you still get your butt into work the next day. No whining, no excuses. It might not be the Greatest Job Ever (tm), but it's better (IMHO) than sitting around leeching off family." This shows a good work ethic in you, a strong sense of values and I agree with it and admire it. But having raised in a tightly-knit family with no financial issues, I wonder how I would have turned out if I had grown up in the a family like the one mentioned in the article.

by lwhalen 13y ago

abraham_s 13y ago

@lwhalen I am not really disagreeing with you. I have also met a lot of people like this. I was trying to point out 1) How it has become really hard to work your way out of poverty with an entry level job these days. 2) How a life of constant failure and lack of guidance leads to personality trait which seems to almost predisposed towards failure. "even if your girlfriend breaks up with you, you still get your butt into work the next day. No whining, no excuses. It might not be the Greatest Job Ever (tm), but it's better (IMHO) than sitting around leeching off family." This shows a good work ethic in you, a strong sense of values and I agree with it and admire it. But having raised in a tightly-knit family with no financial issues, I wonder how I would have turned out if I had grown up in the a family like the one mentioned in the article.