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This isn't a sob story but I wouldn't think about suicide everyday. I would be grateful knowing that I would always have something to buffer me from the social

by wturner 12y ago

This isn't a sob story but I wouldn't think about suicide everyday. I would be grateful knowing that I would always have something to buffer me from the social entrapment of drug addicts, gang members and in short the general erratic uneducated subset of the social fabric where chaos dominates. The bad part of being ( somewhat ) poor in the U.S. isn't a lack of money ( at least not when you're scraping by enough to survive and have shelter) it's the lingering threat of having to confront or deal with people who simply are operating on a foundation of assumptions about life that most educated people are in a position to not tolerate. Just having that worry removed would make a huge difference in my life. To answer your question I would do what I'm already doing. Work in odd jobs when they present themselves. The only difference is the money would be enough for me to launch a small business idea I have quicker than the time it's going to take me.

wj 12y ago
Do you have some family or some sort of support network you could lean on? It sounds like you're in an at-risk environment. Even spending an hour or two at the library rather than being around those influences might be helpful to your state of mind. Not to mention having plenty of books and Internet access to help you launch your small business idea.
rXoX 12y ago
The question about what you'd do with a BI really relates to each of our ideas about what work is and what it's for. The other aspect not being discussed is how sustainable is the idea that every able bodied person should be compelled to work. Placed in the context of climate change and greater degradation of our ecosystem, creating more wealth is fundamentally a bad idea - meaning the idea that everybody must provide labor for someones profit simply to survive is at heart a deeply flawed premise. I do not want to create wealth for anyone. I came to this conclusion a few years ago, made some decisive changes to my life about how best to live, and have suffered the consequences ever since. Novelesque story short, you're on point. We have some serious problems with what "poverty" means in western society. Too many are born into out and condemned to it by the very stigma's you're elaborating on. We look down on people with less. We're driven by status and the idea that someone is not ambitious - in the context of being able to show their fabulous toys to others as the fruits of that ambition - is an anathema to most "normal" folks. Here's the thing. I'm not ambitious, but I'm not lazy. The connotations that I must be lazy because I don't have things is the result of what you've seen. Life to me is about curiosity and exploration. It's reading books, learning kindness and generosity and being able to trust the people I'm surrounded by. But our version of poverty collides with our greater societies ideas that everyone's on their own, and they'll slit your throat if given half the chance. If western society considers the value of life to be in having a "what's in it for me" attitude - which I'd argue it does, we're all in deep, deep trouble. We have to really and truly rethink our ideas around living with less and what that premise means to people who might choose to do so. For now, electing not to participate in a system which will surely destroy all life on this planet means you'll be condemned to suffer a miserable and stigmatized existence. But just as we deliberately create poverty to provide cheap labor, we can undo these things. We can make the elementary aspects of human life accessible for every single person born. Food, clothing and shelter for all is not a hard thing for a species that's mastered so much; so why are we still waiting for it?

by wturner 12y ago

wj 12y ago

Do you have some family or some sort of support network you could lean on? It sounds like you're in an at-risk environment. Even spending an hour or two at the library rather than being around those influences might be helpful to your state of mind. Not to mention having plenty of books and Internet access to help you launch your small business idea.

rXoX 12y ago

The question about what you'd do with a BI really relates to each of our ideas about what work is and what it's for. The other aspect not being discussed is how sustainable is the idea that every able bodied person should be compelled to work. Placed in the context of climate change and greater degradation of our ecosystem, creating more wealth is fundamentally a bad idea - meaning the idea that everybody must provide labor for someones profit simply to survive is at heart a deeply flawed premise. I do not want to create wealth for anyone. I came to this conclusion a few years ago, made some decisive changes to my life about how best to live, and have suffered the consequences ever since. Novelesque story short, you're on point. We have some serious problems with what "poverty" means in western society. Too many are born into out and condemned to it by the very stigma's you're elaborating on. We look down on people with less. We're driven by status and the idea that someone is not ambitious - in the context of being able to show their fabulous toys to others as the fruits of that ambition - is an anathema to most "normal" folks. Here's the thing. I'm not ambitious, but I'm not lazy. The connotations that I must be lazy because I don't have things is the result of what you've seen. Life to me is about curiosity and exploration. It's reading books, learning kindness and generosity and being able to trust the people I'm surrounded by. But our version of poverty collides with our greater societies ideas that everyone's on their own, and they'll slit your throat if given half the chance. If western society considers the value of life to be in having a "what's in it for me" attitude - which I'd argue it does, we're all in deep, deep trouble. We have to really and truly rethink our ideas around living with less and what that premise means to people who might choose to do so. For now, electing not to participate in a system which will surely destroy all life on this planet means you'll be condemned to suffer a miserable and stigmatized existence. But just as we deliberately create poverty to provide cheap labor, we can undo these things. We can make the elementary aspects of human life accessible for every single person born. Food, clothing and shelter for all is not a hard thing for a species that's mastered so much; so why are we still waiting for it?