Asherman wrote:Who is at the bottom of the socio-economic order?
Those who choose not to get a good education.
Those who believe that working for a living is for saps.
Those who choose to deal and use addictive drugs and intoxicants.
Those who believe that the world owes them not just a living, but luxury.
Those who aren't disciplined enough to hold down regular jobs.
Those who are sexually irresponsible.
Those who believe that their problems are all caused by the "system".
Those who have no initiative, are impatient and little imagination.
Those who are comfortable "just getting along".
The there are others:
Those who were born with, or developed major mental or health disorders. Those folks need and generally get the needed care from public and private sources. Medical costs are ruinous, but some of the problem is created by having the taxpayer pickup tabs submitted by Doctors and the Health Care Industry designed to maximize profit. Health care can reduce a middle-class family (whatever that is) to poverty in very short order.
There are those who, after a lifetime of honest work find themselves and their skill set obsolete. A temporary dole exists to help the suddenly unemployed. There are retraining programs available, but for some adaptation is too difficult. The Rust Belt isn't going to suddenly recover jobs that left long ago. The people there have to understand that and adjust their expectations to something more realistic. Some who once made high wages were improvident, they didn't save, they chose to go into debt and now the chickens have come home to roost. People boubht real estate on decidedly poor terms (bad judgment), thinking that they would hold on a little while and sell for huge profits... whoops, the bubble burst and innocent people now have to pay the price.
There are those who chose to "follow their Bliss", and turned their backs on material success. That is a great thing about this country, individuals can choose whatever life path they please in the pursuit of happiness. If a person chooses a path that is highly risky, or that holds little in the way of economic reward or security, how is that Society's problem? If you run away and join the circus, don't later complain that all you are fit for is cleaning up after elephants. Some out of sense of patriotism or duty choose to enter the military, and frankly they don't get enough compensation for what we as a nation expect from them. Teachers don't make a lot of money, and perhaps educational system ought to pay more.
There are those who apparently are just plain unlucky. If they found the winning Lotto Ticket in the trash, they'd misplace in on the way to collect. That's the way the cookie crumbles, and society can't make everyone equally lucky, or unlucky. Actually, the attempt to "fixf" these sort of inequities almost invariably makes things worse for more folks than are ever "helped".
Here are the myths that fuel left-wing doctrine, and require them to condemn your post:
1) The vast majority of "well-off" people in this country have never had to suffer or struggle, but have had their success handed to them.
2) The vast majority of "well-off" people in this country enjoy their status because they are either immoral and greedy, or self-absorbed and horribly materialistic.
3) Being "well-off" implies a failing of personal character.
4) Being "unfortunate" implies nobility and a strength of character.
5) The vast majority of people in this country who find themselves at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid are there not only through no fault of their own, but because of the deliberate mechanizations of the "well-off" to place them there.
6) There is no such thing as personal accountability, unless one is "well-off". A junkie shooting up in a tenament hallway can't be blamed for his predicament, but a fat-cat Wall Street banker is so venal that not only is he accountable for his evil, so are his children who are fair game for low-lifes like Bruce Marks and his fellow NACA thugs.
7) People born into poverty, especially if they are African-American, cannot do anything to rise above their circumstances.
8) Equity is "well off" Americans supporting "disadvantaged" Americans for as long as the "disadvantaged" desire.
9) Humans who believe they can manipulate ecological forces are guilty of hubiris and ignorance, while those who believe they can manipulate economic forces are enlightened and and full of grace.
10) It is not only acceptable, but understandable why "advantaged" liberals (as opposed to the "well-off) will do whatever it takes to prevent their children from going to integrated schools.
There are more, but these 10 will do for now.
Happy, yes. But my drinking buddy is neither my wife nor my girlfriend.
