How hard is it to escape poverty really? Was reading through this and had some thoughts

https://www.listenmoneymatters.com/why-it-is-so-hard-to-escape-poverty-in-america/

But if through an accident of birth, the cards were stacked against you, you’re in for a long, tough slog. Escaping poverty isn’t out of your reach but you are going to have to do absolutely everything right. The passes to say nothing of the endless perks afforded to the lucky ones will not be afforded to you.

If you get caught with a joint, you’re going to be arrested and likely end up with a criminal record, especially if you’re black or Hispanic. No affluenza defense or acquittal for you. If you don’t have the grades to get into college, no fake crewing background wrapped up in a $500,000 bribe is going to change that for you.

...

The articles makes an issue of drugs, bad grades and health care access and my thoughts are what's so hard about not doing drugs and focusing on doing well in school? As for healthcare i dont think it ought to become an issue until a much later age so that wouldn't explain why young people can't make it out of the ghetto by the time they're in their 20s.

Discuss

Because it requires personal responsibility, effort and dedication.

the idea that someone can have grades too bad to get into college has always puzzled me. i knew kids in high schools with like a 2.4 GPA that got into 4 year state schools no problem. you will get wait listed, but will get in eventually.

if you have a sub 2 GPA dont go to college, you're wasting money on an education you're not qualified to receive. the horse is out of the barn at that point, someone needed to get to you much earlier.

most of the issues we have in inner cities stem from politicians looking to give people fish, instead of teaching them to use a pole. it's a dependence strategy that keeps them coming back.

Feel like Aspen asked something similar, I’ll try to find the thread and responses.

This post was edited by obisent on Jun 23 2020 11:03am

i wouldnt bother, every aspen thread goes the same way

"u dont really need a brand new iphone" aspen

"how dare you you privileged out of touch racist" lefties

"also, billionaires dont need ANOTHER yacht. they could get a yacht that is used or one from last years models. greedy jerks" lefties, also.

Escaping poverty is difficult.

I'm gonna use a few examples of my life versus the life of a few of my cousins. My father's sister married a surgeon who went on to start his own practice, and they have been very successful. Meanwhile my father worked highway construction. By no effort of my aunt's, she is easily in the 1% by marrying and divorcing a very successful person while her brother didn't have that luck. So it's a pretty fair comparison.



My high school didn't have a baseball team.
My cousins had former MLB pitching coaches come over every Tuesday and Friday to coach my cousins.

My high school had a band, but no money for spare instruments for the students. If you didn't have the money to buy an instrument, you were basically SOL.
My cousins had a piano with a private tutor, and access to a private tutor for every additional instrument they cared to learn.

My sister and I both worked 40+ hours a week to get through college paying our own cost of living.
My cousins, all 4 of them, didn't have to work a day of their lives until they were 25, at which point their father gave them an administrative job making 60k+ a year in his medical practice if they wanted it. Only one actually took it though. She's a fuck up and has been bailed out many many times.

My sister and I both worked hard in school, but the only option we had due to expense was our state school. So we both went to that.
One of my cousins went to Florida State, which is still a state school but very good, another got into a private school in Colorado because his dad did back surgery on the dean, and another is now at a film school in L.A. and freshman year got hooked up with a movie producer as a script editor because, again, his dad did back surgery on the dean of that school and has connections to people in the film industry from the same source.

My sister and I were both pretty clean-cut. We didn't get into trouble because we know that our parents can't afford to hire legal representation, and we both are damn sure we couldn't afford it until our adult lives.
My cousin, at 16, had like a kilo of weed in his car and wrapped his car around a tree. I don't want to know how much money they spent on legal representation, but he got off with just a year in "rich kid rehab". He got his life together after that and stopped being a fuckwit, thankfully.



Anyway, I could go on for like, literally ever, on this subject. The reason I'm more aware of class differences than most is because I grew up on the side of the family that didn't marry a rich guy and I've had a front row seat to the advantages that money gets you. My cousins were literally not allowed to fail no matter what happened, and as long as they put in the most minimum amount of effort they were rewarded with their father's connections and told how great they were for being so successful.

i still think it's a bit of a correlation error with "poverty" and "parenting" when i read these studies.

if you're poor but have good parents you'll end up ok, maybe not a NASA astronaut but you'll do ok.

if you're poor and have bad parents, you're either fucked. or you'll do the opposite of what they say and turn out great. making the opposite choice of a bad parent leads you down a great path.

if you're rich and have great parents, you'll be on the best path, and likely do wonderfully.

if you're rich and have bad parents, you'll likely be an unmotivated idiot who fucks up their life or never does anything.

like your cousin who got pinched with weed, he did get lucky, but also needed an incredibly extreme wake up call just to become a non fuckwit.



and really this shit is a bit hard to discuss in any sort of nuance, its always near homeless welfare babies versus trust fund jagoffs. in the center we see a lot of "my dad worked hard so i knew i had to my whole life too" versus "my mom always just skated by and it didnt give me a very good sense of motivation and hard work". rather than the far more extreme outcomes that we see on the ends of the spectrum nearly no one populates.

This post was edited by thesnipa on Jun 23 2020 11:15am

I listened to Ben Shapiro and apparently its very easy to not be in poverty

The central idea was:
'Just have a good paying fulltime job and you wont be in poverty, LUL'

A very interesting read, thank you!

I think, however, that kids from the 1% are probably too extreme a comparison. Upper middle class vs working class imho is the more interesting contrast. Yes, past a certain point, it's a "your family is just too big rich and well-connected to fail" situation, and your cousins probably fall into this category. Even most well-off families dont belong to this category though.



Regarding the original topic: connections are the decisive factor for this comparison. If you live a clean life and work hard, even someone from a poor background can make up for the headstart that rich kids get in most areas - but the one key ingredient for success that all the hard work and "doing the right thing" in the world cant buy you is "knowing the right people and being around in the right circles where the really juicy jobs and opportunities are given out".

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Jun 23 2020 12:06pm

I was born in poverty. Father didn't work, had a drill bit broke in his back and he was involved with pain management his whole life, waiting for workmens comp settlement. Mom worked two jobs most of my life, delivery or dock work shipping and receiving. She worked at the kenner factory when i was a kid and i was able to have some of the star wars figures they made that she was able to sneak out. We sometimes wouldn't have toilet paper and wiped our ass with the community paper/door store. We hunted and fished and we ate a lot of what we caught...i can shoot, skin, fry a squirrel, and make a nice gravy out of the grease. Nobody in my family had ever been to college. I don't know any males in my family to have achieved an age older than 60. My parents died young, when i was in my early 20s.

I'm also insanely privileged. I am physically able, in my 40s i have no chronic health conditions and require no medications...I'm bright but not smart enough to make it hard to fit in. I'm attractive, have a big dick, mental health is pretty good though I'm half crazy...have a good work ethic.

Most of the people i grew up with died or were incarcerated. I can name about 30 people that i went to grade school with that have died from heroin addiction looking back. I had my first gun pointed at me in school in 7th grade. I was expelled in 10th grade, and i seen a girl stab another girl in school that year, and remember hearing the hissing coming out of her torso. Three of my close friends were killed by the police soon after graduation.

I seen the writing on the wall and enlisted in the US Army which saved my life. I have every advantage though...even born on severe poverty i have my good health, warm personality, and a good head on my shoulders...and I'm a white guy so I'm one of America's special people.

Oh Duff, you mentioned drugs. Every time i have been in any real trouble it has been due to the prohibition of marijuana. Arrests, article 15s in the army, missed job opportunities.




Parents are everything. Parent's level of education is the number one determinant of success.

I try my best to be a good dad.




Damn man, that's the secret.

This post was edited by Skinned on Jun 23 2020 12:23pm