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You save in poverty to get your kids into a good college and studying a good major. This is what those Asians at your Pho place are doing, your laundry mat, your dry cleaners, your Chineese take out, your Thai food, your 7-11, your housemaid, your gardener, your day laborer.
All these people come to America, bust their butts, save their meager pay and make it better for their offspring.
My parents didn't do this for me, but I made the tough choices to carve my own road, and you best believe I'll be giving my kids the help they need to succeed even if it costs me some luxuries.
Agreed. Even liberal think tanks like the Brookings Institution found that if people do just 3 things, their chances of being poor drop to only 2%:
In later research, Ron Haskins and I learned that if individuals do just three things — finish high school, work full time and marry before they have children — their chances of being poor drop from 15 percent to 2 percent.
Well just duh, the official government poverty bar is set lower than reality.
Government says a childless full time minimum wage worker paying half his income on rent is not poor, while a retired mcmansion owner living on low SS with no mortgage payment and a property tax deferral is poor.
People are poor because they make bad decisions regarding how to spend their time and energy. These bad decisions usually start in childhood.
I worked in childhood - started shoveling snow around town when I was ten - and saved up today's equivalent of $20k by the time I graduated high school..and I'm poor.
People are poor because they make bad decisions regarding how to spend their time and energy. These bad decisions usually start in childhood.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDrenter223
It's not a single generation thing.
You save in poverty to get your kids into a good college and studying a good major. This is what those Asians at your Pho place are doing, your laundry mat, your dry cleaners, your Chineese take out, your Thai food, your 7-11, your housemaid, your gardener, your day laborer.
All these people come to America, bust their butts, save their meager pay and make it better for their offspring.
These two posts are very much related. MDrenter223 talks about the Asian culture where poor immigrant parents stress the education and opportunities of their children. They stand over their children and expect them to master school. They insist on good academic and career decisions.
The flip side is we have a permanent underclass of people who completely lack any of that culture. Add to that the modern millenial "everyone is a unique snowflake" culture where everyone gets a participation trophy and nobody is prepared to compete in the real world. All those bad decisions compounded.
I think the overall problem is that we're simply too damned affluent. The permanent underclass can make constant bad decisions that condemn them to be poor but they'll still have a roof over their head and food on the table. Those unique snowflakes can live in their parents basement and avoid ever having to compete in the real world. Our economy 30 years from now is going to be driven by those Asians and the children of Hispanic illegals who have no choice but to better themselves.
I worked in childhood - started shoveling snow around town when I was ten - and saved up today's equivalent of $20k by the time I graduated high school..and I'm poor.
and you basically worked decades at entry level jobs as an adult, so yes, that would consume today's equivalent of 20k.
Now what? Keep renting tiny, minimally heated rooms? Or change the behavior that led you to where you are on 1-3-2016?
These two posts are very much related. MDrenter223 talks about the Asian culture where poor immigrant parents stress the education and opportunities of their children. They stand over their children and expect them to master school. They insist on good academic and career decisions.
The flip side is we have a permanent underclass of people who completely lack any of that culture. Add to that the modern millenial "everyone is a unique snowflake" culture where everyone gets a participation trophy and nobody is prepared to compete in the real world. All those bad decisions compounded.
I think the overall problem is that we're simply too damned affluent. The permanent underclass can make constant bad decisions that condemn them to be poor but they'll still have a roof over their head and food on the table. Those unique snowflakes can live in their parents basement and avoid ever having to compete in the real world. Our economy 30 years from now is going to be driven by those Asians and the children of Hispanic illegals who have no choice but to better themselves.
If that is the case, are the working poor the biggest chumps in the country?
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