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Yep! There is a very small percentage of people who are truly poor, who cannot pay their bills, as there is in every country. Most of the so-called poor or people who are 'struggling' are those who are losers. Instead of paying their bills, they prefer to spend their money on going out to dinner or picking up a case of beer. Instead of saving for their future, they will pay for their $100 cable subscription. I know several people like this, who cannot get ahead because they don't know how to manage their money. That is not my problem.
Your situation, having a medical condition, is much less common than people who have terrible spending habits. And the reasons for that are a combination of ignorance and a lack of using their brain cells for thinking... and Americans being optimistic about their lives. i.e. thinking that they won't lose their job, they'll get a raise, or that their god will protect them from any disaster ("Jesus take the wheel!").
No doubt it's hard to fix stupid, but I'm not sure how smart it is to always be suggesting anyone facing hard times let alone poverty is nothing but their own fault. You simply can't throw that many millions of Americans under that bus because there are just too many. Add all others on the planet in similar dire straights, and any fool should know there's far more to these stories than the one simple version you keep wanting to tell.
The "working poor" that I see are people who... didn't bother to acquire a desirable job skill, had children (many out of wedlock) that they had too early in life or just had way too many of them, smoke cigarettes and are habitual drinkers of alcohol... and later on in life, these "working poor" have cancers and beer guts.
These people have held themselves back.
How many of these "working poor" do you see and where do you see them? Do you work at a soup kitchen or something?
There are MANY millionaires who smoke and drink to excess...always have been. Guess it didn't apply to them.
Germans are perhaps the single most successful people on the planet and any American who drank that much beer would be considered an alcoholic. It used to be (2-3 decades ago) that vast numbers of Germans, Danes, etc. smoked....it was quite normal.
So, what is the difference? I say it is that Denmark and Germany have social policies (educational, testing, vocational, etc.) that allow people to learn those skill...in fact, pretty much force them to do so. Also, once you learn those skills you often get a Union job making the US equiv. of $30-$50 an hour (with benefits)...sometimes more.
Here, if if you learn a skill, you are at the mercy of the so-called "free market". If there are too many plumbers you are Chit Out of Luck because the pricing will come down and down and down. You can then get a job at Home Depot for $15 an hour after peeing in a cup and consider yourself lucky.
There is a difference. For many the American Dream has become a nightmare. They played largely by the rules but the game is rigged away From the People.
No one denies that it is possible to make it here. Even easy if the stars are all aligned. But we can certainly do better than, for example, to have 46% of Floridians not making it and having the pols there tell us it is the BEST EVER.
Let's at least get our definitions straight. No, that's not a good thing....no matter who you want to blame it on.
I think you do a fairly good job of at least making the case we can do better. Of course we can and should!
Americans should live like their ancestors from the countries they came from, and like the Americans who survived the Great Depression.
Traditional Asians (not like they are living today) lived very frugally and saved their money. They paid in cash, not with credit. And families would invest in themselves, by living under one roof to save money, and also all family members pooling their money and time in order to open up a family business. They were also willing to work multiple jobs in order to reach their goals. And the purpose of arranged marriages was to improve the family's fortunes by making strong alliances with other successful families.
My husband's grandparents lived through the Great Depression. Even at the end of her life, she would reuse ziplock bags by washing them out. I never saw her with any jewelry except her wedding band and necklace with a cross on it. They started out in life with nothing, but with working two jobs and wise investments, at the end they had a sizable estate to leave their three adopted children and their kids... plus during their lifetime, they made a large contribution to a local college towards a new science building.
It is very difficult for people to resist "projecting" based on their own personal experience as if personal anecdotes apply to everyone else, but they don't...
I am the son of dirt-poor immigrant parents who later also did fairly well coming to American, better than most average Americans by far, but it wasn't because they were reusing plastic baggies. My wife's grandmother also did little but work herself to the bone and also ended up with more than the average value of assets. I don't know many people who would consider living the way she did as really "living," like most people aspire to do, however. Hell, living like that is hardly worth living let alone working for!
Much in any case depends on what kind of parents you have, what culture you live in and what example of living a life, succeeding in life, one gets to experience while growing up.
Just me personally, I am fortunate to have had a successful career (my wife too), but we always lived our lives "like we mean it." Within our means of course, but we spent money all the while. Plenty. I still remember my father always explaining that you don't get ahead in life by making and saving a little money. To get ahead, you have to make money. Was thanks to a good upbringing, the opportunity for a great education and then the job(s) that my education allowed me, that I was able to make money rather than grovel all along by saving money.
I'm very glad to say I've lived a life very much worth living all along. Glad and very thankful...
Problem very simply put is largely what happens to us while we are growing up, including both positive and negative influences that ultimately determines our lot in life. Odds are, those who don't start off well won't do as well as others who start off with better advantages. That's the simple truth born out statistically speaking. Those are the odds, regardless what "rags-to-riches" stories we can all tell. For every "rags-to-riches" story there are countless untold stories that end quite differently. That's the difference between reality based on personal anecdotes and reality based on statistics. Big difference!
Without offering even a hint of what information you have to the contrary? How very nice and convenient for you. I can only imagine how little time you spend considering what Sanders is telling us too...
Yep! There is a very small percentage of people who are truly poor, who cannot pay their bills, as there is in every country. Most of the so-called poor or people who are 'struggling' are those who are losers. Instead of paying their bills, they prefer to spend their money on going out to dinner or picking up a case of beer. Instead of saving for their future, they will pay for their $100 cable subscription. I know several people like this, who cannot get ahead because they don't know how to manage their money. That is not my problem.
Well, there we have it...
You know several people like this. What more does anyone really need to know?
There are MANY millionaires who smoke and drink to excess...always have been. Guess it didn't apply to them.
Germans are perhaps the single most successful people on the planet and any American who drank that much beer would be considered an alcoholic. It used to be (2-3 decades ago) that vast numbers of Germans, Danes, etc. smoked....it was quite normal.
So, what is the difference? I say it is that Denmark and Germany have social policies (educational, testing, vocational, etc.) that allow people to learn those skill...in fact, pretty much force them to do so. Also, once you learn those skills you often get a Union job making the US equiv. of $30-$50 an hour (with benefits)...sometimes more.
Here, if if you learn a skill, you are at the mercy of the so-called "free market". If there are too many plumbers you are Chit Out of Luck because the pricing will come down and down and down. You can then get a job at Home Depot for $15 an hour after peeing in a cup and consider yourself lucky.
There is a difference. For many the American Dream has become a nightmare. They played largely by the rules but the game is rigged away From the People.
No one denies that it is possible to make it here. Even easy if the stars are all aligned. But we can certainly do better than, for example, to have 46% of Floridians not making it and having the pols there tell us it is the BEST EVER.
Let's at least get our definitions straight. No, that's not a good thing....no matter who you want to blame it on.
Let's see....
In Europe, it is possible to get by without a car. People live in walk-able villages, so having a nightly beer at the local pub is no big deal. Unlike in America where we are much more spread out, and DUI's are a problem.
As to having an excess of plumbers? Really? America currently has a shortage of those in the SKILLED trades. And even if one of them is between jobs, when one is good with their hands, they can barter their skills and also fearlessly buy a cheap fixer-upper, restore it and then flip it for a profit. Having trade skills is one of the easiest ways to build equity in oneself.
Instead of futilely trying to give every single child in America a STEM education, it would be much wiser to encourage those who hate sitting still at a desk to do their homework, instead to consider a future in blue collar work. But add to that, classes in practical math and accounting for a small business should be offered to all high school students. And ALL children need to learn the importance of maintaining a good credit score. Credit cars are NOT free money. And students do need to understand that taking out a large college loan may not be a smart move for them, that the price tag of a college education may not pay for itself later on.
You know several people like this. What more does anyone really need to know?
Finally. End of thread then?
It’s called anecdotal evidence and it’s often used in conjunction with data. Anyone with any sense at all can observe his environment and be perceptive of reality to know that the premise that began this thread is untrue.
In Europe, it is possible to get by without a car. People live in walk-able villages, so having a nightly beer at the local pub is no big deal. Unlike in America where we are much more spread out, and DUI's are a problem.
As to having an excess of plumbers? Really? America currently has a shortage of those in the SKILLED trades. And even if one of them is between jobs, when one is good with their hands, they can barter their skills and also fearlessly buy a cheap fixer-upper, restore it and then flip it for a profit. Having trade skills is one of the easiest ways to build equity in oneself.
Instead of futilely trying to give every single child in America a STEM education, it would be much wiser to encourage those who hate sitting still at a desk to do their homework, instead to consider a future in blue collar work. But add to that, classes in practical math and accounting for a small business should be offered to all high school students. And ALL children need to learn the importance of maintaining a good credit score. Credit cars are NOT free money. And students do need to understand that taking out a large college loan may not be a smart move for them, that the price tag of a college education may not pay for itself later on.
Well, we are really saying the same thing!
It's only due to capitalism and lobbying that we have "car culture". 100 years ago one could get almost anywhere by electric streetcar or train. Yet today we cannot. That includes the pub, the job, the store, the doctor and the vo-tech training.
Today you need more just to survive. Without transportation (reliable) and a phone people cannot make it...so those are requirements. They also set people up for failure....when a poor person gets a ticket or their car breaks down or they get in an accident (none of which happen on the electric trolley), they are often set back - sometimes WAY back. Heck, they have a hard time even getting to the courthouse.
The system is rigged. Anyone who takes a hard look at it would agree. I'm not claiming someone sits on the top and rigs everything against the working poor....BUT, the "Capitalism" we practice, which bows at the altar of money instead of people, ends up creating the same ends.
It simply is not "profitable" to build vast public transit...in the US sense. It is profitable, though, to sell billions of opiates to the very same people our system leaves behind.
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