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Somebody on Quora once wrote beautifully about how it's impossible for the rich to ever understand what it's like to be truly, horribly poor- because there is n

Somebody on Quora once wrote beautifully about how it's impossible for the rich to ever understand what it's like to be truly, horribly poor- because there is no escape. There is no safety. The writer described how, even when he was in dire straits, at the back of his mind he knew that he could count on maybe extended family or something or someone to pull him out of trouble. The poor have no such privilege. True despair means being truly, completely cut off. So there's really very little a rich person can do to walk in the shoes of a poor person- because even if say, Bill Gates gave away ALL his fortune and got himself into crippling debt or something- at least some people will recognize that he's Bill Gates, and treat him differently for it. No simple solutions to offer here, just saying dis shit is complex.

nodata 13y ago
Link?
jbert 13y ago
> Somebody on Quora once wrote beautifully about how it's impossible for the rich to ever understand what it's like to be truly, horribly poor- because there is no escape. There is no safety. Jarvis Cocker wrote quite a good song in that vein: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pulp/commonpeople.html http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pulp/commonpeople.html
- shimfish 13y ago
  Incidentally, I really like William Shatner's cover. It brings out the contempt in the lyrics. And it rocks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0
Jach 13y ago
In agreement with "dis shit is complex", I think the statement that rich people can never understand is too narrow to be true, because it ignores the rich people who came up from humble beginnings and moved up a class or two. There are a lot of those people in the programming profession -- perhaps it's because 'at the back of their mind, they can count on their intellect getting them through it all eventually'. If one accepts that there's a correlation between intelligence and income, then many poor people probably don't even have the hope that they can learn how to do a professional trade and get out of their situation that way. I'd rather see more money pumped into brain enhancement than to pay bureaucrats to come up with 'new' ways to fix the problem that eventually just boil down to giving the poor more money.
- FreezerburnV 13y ago
  The one thing that I never get in posts kinda like yours (and yours), is how it seems when you're talking about jobs, you directly equate "intelligence" with being able to get a job or make an income. I don't believe this is true, and many people who have less "intelligence" can still find jobs. Granted, they might not be the most "cushy" of jobs, but they will still pay and are likely relatively satisfying. I would recommend watching the show "Dirty Jobs" (if you haven't already) to see many, many of the kinds of jobs where you don't need to be a college graduate with good scores to be able to get them. Heck, you can even get a job somewhere where most people would consider you having to be intelligent to get into, without actually being good at that job. (see thedailywtf for examples of "programmers" who have jobs, and just make life miserable for everyone else) So many of the jobs that I've seen in Dirty Jobs, I cannot do. (at least right now, I guess I could learn, but it would be hard) They require a completely different degree of intelligence/intuition that I've never developed. Most would consider me "intelligent" as a programmer, but I just see it as having a certain skill set, out of many, many skill sets that exist. I doubt I'm any more intelligent than a good construction worker. I'd rather see more people learn to do trades, than become "smarter" and likely have even less of a chance of getting a job. We have more than enough "smart" people already.
  - zanny 13y ago
    On your latter point, my father does contract construction and has 40 years experience now. He can expect $25 an hour. He is competing with $10 immigrant labor, not because they have an equatable skill set (he has a covered cab full of his own tools and is an ultimate DIY) but because the people hiring don't want to pay for quality. Note that the climate of construction radically varies based on locale, but in central PA it is always stuck at the bottom. And he is capable of electrical, plumbing, roofing, framing, cabinetry, etc. All those professions are stuck at rock bottom because their target demographics are all getting consistently poorer. As the middle class dissolves, consumer grade high skilled trade labor dies. You can't all be building some rich guys back yard amusement park, and most busnesses contract with a trade firm for their construction rather than freelancers. My father has gotten a few industrial gigs, which were always consistent pay sources but also only paid barely minimum wage and usually hired immigrant or just-graduate workers who mess everything up and do shoddy jobs. So it isn't that simple. If all the poor people got educated in a trade, they would still have no one with money to pay them, unless they got into one of the 3 or so degreed professions that are actually seeing hires (all stem, plus law, and maybe business administration from an Ivy League). And if they were to self teach through online tutorials or other library resources, nobody would look at them for a lack of credentials even if they site their own personal projects ,because they are not "professional" jobs. So unless you mass migrate these poor people to where money is (and for lack of anything else there is plenty of money even if it is locked up in economic loops outside the ones those in poverty occupy) they could have all the skills in but you would have to effectively hit the reset button on their economic engine when none of them could buy or rent land anywhere to farm or mine.

nodata 13y ago

Link?

jbert 13y ago

> Somebody on Quora once wrote beautifully about how it's impossible for the rich to ever understand what it's like to be truly, horribly poor- because there is no escape. There is no safety. Jarvis Cocker wrote quite a good song in that vein: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pulp/commonpeople.html http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pulp/commonpeople.html

shimfish 13y ago
Incidentally, I really like William Shatner's cover. It brings out the contempt in the lyrics. And it rocks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ainyK6fXku0

Jach 13y ago

In agreement with "dis shit is complex", I think the statement that rich people can never understand is too narrow to be true, because it ignores the rich people who came up from humble beginnings and moved up a class or two. There are a lot of those people in the programming profession -- perhaps it's because 'at the back of their mind, they can count on their intellect getting them through it all eventually'. If one accepts that there's a correlation between intelligence and income, then many poor people probably don't even have the hope that they can learn how to do a professional trade and get out of their situation that way. I'd rather see more money pumped into brain enhancement than to pay bureaucrats to come up with 'new' ways to fix the problem that eventually just boil down to giving the poor more money.

FreezerburnV 13y ago
The one thing that I never get in posts kinda like yours (and yours), is how it seems when you're talking about jobs, you directly equate "intelligence" with being able to get a job or make an income. I don't believe this is true, and many people who have less "intelligence" can still find jobs. Granted, they might not be the most "cushy" of jobs, but they will still pay and are likely relatively satisfying. I would recommend watching the show "Dirty Jobs" (if you haven't already) to see many, many of the kinds of jobs where you don't need to be a college graduate with good scores to be able to get them. Heck, you can even get a job somewhere where most people would consider you having to be intelligent to get into, without actually being good at that job. (see thedailywtf for examples of "programmers" who have jobs, and just make life miserable for everyone else) So many of the jobs that I've seen in Dirty Jobs, I cannot do. (at least right now, I guess I could learn, but it would be hard) They require a completely different degree of intelligence/intuition that I've never developed. Most would consider me "intelligent" as a programmer, but I just see it as having a certain skill set, out of many, many skill sets that exist. I doubt I'm any more intelligent than a good construction worker. I'd rather see more people learn to do trades, than become "smarter" and likely have even less of a chance of getting a job. We have more than enough "smart" people already.
- zanny 13y ago
  On your latter point, my father does contract construction and has 40 years experience now. He can expect $25 an hour. He is competing with $10 immigrant labor, not because they have an equatable skill set (he has a covered cab full of his own tools and is an ultimate DIY) but because the people hiring don't want to pay for quality. Note that the climate of construction radically varies based on locale, but in central PA it is always stuck at the bottom. And he is capable of electrical, plumbing, roofing, framing, cabinetry, etc. All those professions are stuck at rock bottom because their target demographics are all getting consistently poorer. As the middle class dissolves, consumer grade high skilled trade labor dies. You can't all be building some rich guys back yard amusement park, and most busnesses contract with a trade firm for their construction rather than freelancers. My father has gotten a few industrial gigs, which were always consistent pay sources but also only paid barely minimum wage and usually hired immigrant or just-graduate workers who mess everything up and do shoddy jobs. So it isn't that simple. If all the poor people got educated in a trade, they would still have no one with money to pay them, unless they got into one of the 3 or so degreed professions that are actually seeing hires (all stem, plus law, and maybe business administration from an Ivy League). And if they were to self teach through online tutorials or other library resources, nobody would look at them for a lack of credentials even if they site their own personal projects ,because they are not "professional" jobs. So unless you mass migrate these poor people to where money is (and for lack of anything else there is plenty of money even if it is locked up in economic loops outside the ones those in poverty occupy) they could have all the skills in but you would have to effectively hit the reset button on their economic engine when none of them could buy or rent land anywhere to farm or mine.