You obviously don't understand what constitutes poverty in this country. Thee are plenty of people working multiple jobs to try to make ends meet that are still under the poverty line. There are people in the military whose families are on food stamps.
Your assumption that people are poor only because they "fucked up" is ridiculous. It has no basis in fact whatsoever. The idea that everybody could be a wealthy CEO or entrepreneur if they just worked harder and didn't "fuck up" is not only a complete fallacy, it's completely impossible. You can't run an economy on nothing but CEOs and entrepreneurs. You need people to be responsible for the production and distribution of goods and services. You need maintenance workers, law enforcement and teachers. You need a military
Not everybody can be a rich CEO, and everyone didn't have to be 40 years. 40 years ago people were paid a decent income, had fully comprehensive health benefits, and defined benefit pension plans fully vested by their companies. Today those pensions are gone; you have to pay into a 401(K) if you want any retirement. You're charged more and more in premiums and out of pocket for health care To top it all off, the income of CEOs is now 380 times what the average worker makes. Salaries and wages have been flat for over ten years now. 50% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with inflation because their salaries haven't kept up with it.
But go ahead and tell that police officer, soldier, teacher, waitress, truck driver and factory worker that the reason none of them are wealthy is because they all fucked up. I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear it from you.
The waitress and the non-union factory worker. Most caretakers for the elderly and and for people with disabilities also make minimum wage, as do childcare workers and retail sales clerks. Many solders may not make minimum wage, but their income is low enough that their families are on food stamps Are you going to tell all these people that they've fucked up?
Ho-hum. You've got it wrong, as usual. The only example with a family in my comment is the soldier. All the rest are individual workers; the waitress and retail sales clerk are most often students in college. I guess they failed by not finding a restaurant or store that pays more than minimum wage. What fuck-ups! Why, everyone knows that non-minimum wage jobs in retail and restaurants are abundant!
Now most people would say that only an ignorant fool would believe that a rich child and a poor child occupy the same level playing field when it comes to getting ahead in life.
40 years ago people were paid a decent income, had fully comprehensive health benefits, and defined benefit pension plans fully vested by their companies. Today those pensions are gone; you have to pay into a 401(K) if you want any retirement. You're charged more and more in premiums and out of pocket for health care To top it all off, the income of CEOs is now 380 times what the average worker makes. Salaries and wages have been flat for over ten years now. 50% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with inflation because their salaries haven't kept up with it.
THIS. All of this. It's NOT a level playing field. It never has been, but one could argue that this didn't matter as much in terms of basic survival back 40 years ago. I'm not preaching some "good old days utopia", but the unlevel playing field of the past, crappy as it was, at least wasn't tilted so egregiously that those on one end of it were slidling off completely. People could make a decent living doing menial trades, technical work, etc, and could start families and leave their children better off than they were, without having to be a CEO. And to a certain extent (ugh, I feel gross even saying this) people could point to those who weren't able to get by and say what Trog is saying now: "Hey, work harder." And (oh god I just threw up in my mouth a little) maybe they were sometimes justified in that. It wasn't ALWAYS justified (because let's not even get into how the playing field was skewed in OTHER WAYS, in terms of gender and race) but if we want to oversimplify, we can say: "Sure, Trog, back then maybe 'don't make bad choices, work harder' had some basis in reality."
But it's the past tense where he's failing here. Today, all of that has been so madly skewed (so now we have a skewed field - STILL skewed somewhat in terms of gender and race, but now skewed additionally in the direction of "class"). And privileged assholes can look at the struggling poor and continue to parrot the catchphrases of their fathers and grandfathers: "Gee, why don't you just work harder?" without the slightest hint of self-awareness of comprehension of the change in reality since those "good old days." Their attitude is barely one step removed from: "You're only poor because you're lazy" which is one step from: "the wealthy are simply a better BREED, blood will out!" I'm not even really positive that the picture I painted above of the past wasn't unrealistically rosy, but the happy utopian bullshit bootstrappy world Trog's describing only worked (if it ever did) because "working hard" or "making good decisions" or whatever the fuck we want to call it was only half of the equation; the other half was investment IN the people in terms of fair wages, benefits, public schools, social programs to cover those falling through the cracks, etc. The very things required to make their "everyone works hard and has a chance!" utopia a reality are the things the wealthiest and most powerful have savaged and looted in their bloodlust, only to look up at the wasteland they've wrought to ask: "My word, why won't someone clean UP this mess? Tsk. Laziness! The plebians are obviously SQUANDERING what they've been given. I better take a little more, for their own good."
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Your assumption that people are poor only because they "fucked up" is ridiculous. It has no basis in fact whatsoever. The idea that everybody could be a wealthy CEO or entrepreneur if they just worked harder and didn't "fuck up" is not only a complete fallacy, it's completely impossible. You can't run an economy on nothing but CEOs and entrepreneurs. You need people to be responsible for the production and distribution of goods and services. You need maintenance workers, law enforcement and teachers. You need a military
Not everybody can be a rich CEO, and everyone didn't have to be 40 years. 40 years ago people were paid a decent income, had fully comprehensive health benefits, and defined benefit pension plans fully vested by their companies. Today those pensions are gone; you have to pay into a 401(K) if you want any retirement. You're charged more and more in premiums and out of pocket for health care To top it all off, the income of CEOs is now 380 times what the average worker makes. Salaries and wages have been flat for over ten years now. 50% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with inflation because their salaries haven't kept up with it.
But go ahead and tell that police officer, soldier, teacher, waitress, truck driver and factory worker that the reason none of them are wealthy is because they all fucked up. I'm sure they'll be delighted to hear it from you.
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Which of those make minimum wage?
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My god, you're a bore!
no subject
40 years ago people were paid a decent income, had fully comprehensive health benefits, and defined benefit pension plans fully vested by their companies. Today those pensions are gone; you have to pay into a 401(K) if you want any retirement. You're charged more and more in premiums and out of pocket for health care To top it all off, the income of CEOs is now 380 times what the average worker makes. Salaries and wages have been flat for over ten years now. 50% of the country lives paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with inflation because their salaries haven't kept up with it.
THIS. All of this. It's NOT a level playing field. It never has been, but one could argue that this didn't matter as much in terms of basic survival back 40 years ago. I'm not preaching some "good old days utopia", but the unlevel playing field of the past, crappy as it was, at least wasn't tilted so egregiously that those on one end of it were slidling off completely. People could make a decent living doing menial trades, technical work, etc, and could start families and leave their children better off than they were, without having to be a CEO. And to a certain extent (ugh, I feel gross even saying this) people could point to those who weren't able to get by and say what Trog is saying now: "Hey, work harder." And (oh god I just threw up in my mouth a little) maybe they were sometimes justified in that. It wasn't ALWAYS justified (because let's not even get into how the playing field was skewed in OTHER WAYS, in terms of gender and race) but if we want to oversimplify, we can say: "Sure, Trog, back then maybe 'don't make bad choices, work harder' had some basis in reality."
But it's the past tense where he's failing here. Today, all of that has been so madly skewed (so now we have a skewed field - STILL skewed somewhat in terms of gender and race, but now skewed additionally in the direction of "class"). And privileged assholes can look at the struggling poor and continue to parrot the catchphrases of their fathers and grandfathers: "Gee, why don't you just work harder?" without the slightest hint of self-awareness of comprehension of the change in reality since those "good old days." Their attitude is barely one step removed from: "You're only poor because you're lazy" which is one step from: "the wealthy are simply a better BREED, blood will out!" I'm not even really positive that the picture I painted above of the past wasn't unrealistically rosy, but the happy utopian bullshit bootstrappy world Trog's describing only worked (if it ever did) because "working hard" or "making good decisions" or whatever the fuck we want to call it was only half of the equation; the other half was investment IN the people in terms of fair wages, benefits, public schools, social programs to cover those falling through the cracks, etc. The very things required to make their "everyone works hard and has a chance!" utopia a reality are the things the wealthiest and most powerful have savaged and looted in their bloodlust, only to look up at the wasteland they've wrought to ask: "My word, why won't someone clean UP this mess? Tsk. Laziness! The plebians are obviously SQUANDERING what they've been given. I better take a little more, for their own good."
no subject