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America is bursting at the seams with opportunities. We are incredibly spoiled. My sister studied in Nicaragua for her master's degree and met her husband, a smart, talented engineer and artist. This guy is brilliant. He can build a house, run plumbing to irrigate crops, paint stunning murals, fix Japanese cars with parts designed for American cars, and he speaks three languages. My youngest brother dropped out of college three weeks into the semester and spent the next 5 years of his life bouncing around menial jobs occasionally getting arrested for smoking pot. Finally he got a job delivering and installing jukeboxes and other devices at bars and restaurants.
My brother makes twice my sister's husband's salary, and his benefits are better as well. He has a nicer house, a nicer car, and he is able to live close to family, while my sister's husband has been forced to bounce around central America to find work. My youngest brother is the least prosperous member of my extended family, yet he would be at the very high end of upper middle class in the majority of the hemisphere. My brother spends more money feeding his dogs each month than many of my sister's in-laws spend feeding their whole families.
So much truth here. I lived in S. Korea for most of my childhood, and while it's no third world country by any means, the opportunities are not comparable to what the US offers. I can't tell you the number of Korean families I know who moved to the states knowing little to no English, and still managed to open and run a successful dry cleaning business or whatever business they desired, and make more than a lot of doctors/lawyers do. Amazing what hard work and a desirable skillset can do for a person in the US.
The US is actually so much wealthier now than in our parents or grandparents time, there is really no comparison. To say otherwise is just nostalgic thinking, or a lack of real awareness.
And the US is generally much wealthier than the rest of the world.
The only lesson here is that, despite ANY economy, strong or otherwise, some will struggle economically because 1.) Some people cannot manage there personal finances and/or make poor life choices (buying that big screen TV instead instead of food for your family), and 2.) Some fall victim to bad luck (medical, death in family, etc).
The article seems to think safety nets and government controls are the solution. Safety nets are in place, but you cannot legislate or regulate bad luck any more than you can legislate or regulate idiots that cannot manage personal finances.
These articles always cherry pick the most sympathetic cases and ignore all the others where people are just stupid or reckless. Or worse, they try to make reckless people into victims.
so true . but as you see here misery articles get far better responses then success stories where posters are beaten up for bragging . misery loves company .
People will be paid what they are worth. Period. No administration can change that. If you have no real skills, you will remain poor or low income because no one is going to pay you 50K a year.
With that being said, I do believe there are circumstances that can't be helped - losing a job for medical reasons, having difficulty getting hired due to ageism (or difficulty getting promoted), perhaps not having the intellect to pursue higher skills or education.
But we need to stop the blame-game. People have many different life circumstances.
We believe in freedom. That includes the freedom to do stupid things, freedom to remain ignorant in spite of 12 years of mandatory education, freedom to function at a low level and not strive to succeed in life, freedom to spent money as fast or faster than they can earn it. When people exercise their freedoms to make poor choices with poor consequences, should we feel sorry for them? Should we give up some of our resources to help them? Or should we take away some of their freedoms?
Not to derail the thread, but you might enjoy this:
In the originally posted case, the main problem is her age. I can't imagine looking for work after 60. I started noticing ageism around 45.
As I've been saying on these CD boards forever, people need to get it in their heads that they need to be at least semi-financially independent by their mid 50s, if not sooner.
As I've been saying on these CD boards forever, people need to get it in their heads that they need to be at least semi-financially independent by their mid 50s, if not sooner.
Getting in their heads doesn’t mean it’s achievable. I can’t imagine what my mother could have done differently to be financially independent in her 50’s, nor my brother.
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