bobleponge said:
You literally just dismissed people's experiences because you don't relate to them. I'm sure you have seen people go from the bottom to the top. There's a good chance you've never talked to the people who can't make it anywhere near the top, and because of that you are denying their existence.
What I mean by how I treat people is when making an impression - IE, when meeting them for the first time, I don't care where they're from or their circumstance, I want to treat them with respect and dignity. Rich, poor, minority, grey-area sexual orientation, I want to earn their friendship and respect.
What demographic of person living in the Western World has 0% chance to control their own lives? Obviously no one has 0% control over their lives. A man in prison can still decide to do push-ups every day instead of just lying in bed. We're talking about people who have negligible opportunity to find success and happiness. I'm referring to the mentally ill, the homeless, and really anybody who lives under the poverty line. I'm talking about the woman working two jobs, getting up at 4 in the morning and getting home at midnight, just so she can pay rent and feed her kid. I'm talking about the man who has to sacrifice food for a week so he can afford to fix his car, because if he can't get to work he'll be fired, he won't be able to pay rent, and he'll quickly become homeless. Do you really think these kinds of people can move out of their situation just by "working harder?"
I'm a firm believer in 'don't have children if you're not in a position to support them'. Accidents happen, but reproducing is so easily avoidable that I find it hard to sympathize with people who beat their lives into poverty by inflicting dependants upon themselves. Adoption systems exist, and in the US, a person can hand an infant over to a fire station with no questions asked. Not much else I can say on that topic.
As for your second example, the answer is "Yes, but that's half the equation."
'pay rent' is the problem I'm seeing here. I know people who've lived in their cars, slept under their desks or otherwise chosen to be homeless in order to save money, build capital and embark on investment or educating themselves.
I know a man who earned his carpentry apprenticeship building worker housing on railways, and chose to sleep at the railhouse rather than rent a place. After four years, around the same time he finished his education and started working for himself, he'd gathered enough money to put a deposit on a run-down house, which he then used his own skills to rebuild, then rented it out to someone else instead of living in. Two years later, another. One year later, another. The next house he bought, he actually moved into. Repeat ad infinitum.
Seven years of choosing to live without a home to work toward a plan for the future. Extremist sacrifice and skin-off-your-hands hard work. It's possible, it's doable, but for some reason people are so disillusioned that they don't see the opportunities and possibilities in front of them.
The manufacturing and construction sectors around the world are in desperate need of workers. The positions pay well, require basic training and have sprawling opportunity for advancement. Trades will *always* be in demand, and offer on-the-job training. No student debts, and an income while you learn.
So don't tell me it's impossible when there is
so fucking much opportunity for the intelligent, hard-working citizen. Sacrifice, relocation, reconsidering your options, realigning your goals...
I wanted to be a pilot. For reasons, that became impossible for me, so instead of slamming my head against the brick wall of the Everyone Else's Fault building on the corner of It's Too Hard street and But boulevard, I came up with a different plan. That also failed, so I came up with a third. Those 99% riots - stupid kids bitching about a lack of jobs in their 'chosen field'. Yeah, well, life doesn't work that way. Things don't go the way you've always dreamed, so you pull up your big-kid panties and go to plan B. (they... had a backup plan, right?)
I don't care if I sound privileged or objectivist. My mother, sister and I came from nothing after leaving my cheating dictator of a father, and ten years later I'm enjoying my own home with my fiancé.
And, a final note, your two examples don't exist here - New Zealand - because we have a stable welfare system in place to ensure people who need help can get it. The welfare office will even give that guy an interest-free loan to get his car unfucked so he can work. Our homeless rate is less than 1%. So you can check my entire country's privilege.
