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That doesn't answer the question. Not having parents to pay for college isn't a "poor choice". Since finances are the leading cause of divorce, it would be re

by ssmoot 12y ago

That doesn't answer the question. Not having parents to pay for college isn't a "poor choice". Since finances are the leading cause of divorce, it would be reasonable to expect that lower income families have more single-parent homes. It's frankly immoral to consider marriage (and divorce) a luxury the poor are somehow less deserving of. If I were to get a divorce, it wouldn't ruin me. I have seen a number of middle class kids make "poor choices" that would have devastated a poor family. The children of poor families don't "fail upwards" in the way that upper middle class kids do. I worked very hard to achieve what I have. But I recognize that without the help of family who could afford to help, the work alone would not have been enough. I've found a healthy dose of success in spite of some poor choices. Your POV is typical of people who've had the luxury of not having to depend on a two hour bus commute to get to a job that offers no vacation hours. Where every trivial emergency is one that hits you twice: Once to pay for the event itself, and once for the lost work hours. It's a position of privilege.

dkhenry 12y ago
So for someone who's first complaint was I was living in a magical world. You are clearly not in touch with reality. You mention divorce and college. 1. a very low percentage of minorities even get married. Meaning divorce is a statistical outlier [http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21569433-americas-marriage-rate-falling-and-its-out-wedlock-birth-rate-soaring-fraying http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21569433-america...] 2. Low income teens are likely to get pregnant while in high school. This has nothing to do with mommy and daddy not being able to pay for college and them getting stuck in a dead end job while trying to raise a family. These kids are dropping out of school and having kids before any prospect of a job is on the table. Then they have to deal with the fact that they have kids and it limits their choices ( can I go to school and work two jobs while raising kids ? )[http://www.nber.org/papers/w17965.pdf http://www.nber.org/papers/w17965.pdf] Yeah right some kids can get away with more poor choices but that doesn't mean they are not poor choices, and while I don't think there is a good body of evidence for this exact situation, even kids who are middle or upper middle class who have kids early in life and have their parents who can cover for them, their kids are statistically likely to make the same poor choices and the parents are not as likely to be able to support them. So the first generation might be able to "fail upwards" but the second generation which is statistically likely to fail as well will be much less likely to do the same thing.
- ssmoot 12y ago
  I think you must be responding to someone else. I didn't say anything about a magical world. 25% is not insignificant. And of course the lower on the socioeconomic totem pole you go, the more divorce you find. And when you don't have prospects, then maybe you're a little more careless about behavior that would interfere with those nonexistent prospects. I feel like it's no great secret that many young people these days delay starting a family for college and career. It seems reasonable to expect that the opposite might be true as well for people who don't have the same opportunities. As for your last point, that doesn't nullify anything you know? If you start out on 3rd base, you will face fewer consequences. No surprise. You might not slide into home, but the people who started out at-bat are still unlikely to catch up with you. See wealth-gap, class mobility, etc.

by ssmoot 12y ago

dkhenry 12y ago

So for someone who's first complaint was I was living in a magical world. You are clearly not in touch with reality. You mention divorce and college. 1. a very low percentage of minorities even get married. Meaning divorce is a statistical outlier [http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21569433-americas-marriage-rate-falling-and-its-out-wedlock-birth-rate-soaring-fraying http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21569433-america...] 2. Low income teens are likely to get pregnant while in high school. This has nothing to do with mommy and daddy not being able to pay for college and them getting stuck in a dead end job while trying to raise a family. These kids are dropping out of school and having kids before any prospect of a job is on the table. Then they have to deal with the fact that they have kids and it limits their choices ( can I go to school and work two jobs while raising kids ? )[http://www.nber.org/papers/w17965.pdf http://www.nber.org/papers/w17965.pdf] Yeah right some kids can get away with more poor choices but that doesn't mean they are not poor choices, and while I don't think there is a good body of evidence for this exact situation, even kids who are middle or upper middle class who have kids early in life and have their parents who can cover for them, their kids are statistically likely to make the same poor choices and the parents are not as likely to be able to support them. So the first generation might be able to "fail upwards" but the second generation which is statistically likely to fail as well will be much less likely to do the same thing.

ssmoot 12y ago
I think you must be responding to someone else. I didn't say anything about a magical world. 25% is not insignificant. And of course the lower on the socioeconomic totem pole you go, the more divorce you find. And when you don't have prospects, then maybe you're a little more careless about behavior that would interfere with those nonexistent prospects. I feel like it's no great secret that many young people these days delay starting a family for college and career. It seems reasonable to expect that the opposite might be true as well for people who don't have the same opportunities. As for your last point, that doesn't nullify anything you know? If you start out on 3rd base, you will face fewer consequences. No surprise. You might not slide into home, but the people who started out at-bat are still unlikely to catch up with you. See wealth-gap, class mobility, etc.