Being Poor by John Scalzi
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- GreedoLives0
what if you can't find the tree? or never learned how to climb a tree? or only have one leg? what if that tree has no fruit on it?
- ThreeSevenFive0
Disclaimer: This is not directed at those in New Orleans but to everyone in general.
Whatever happened to "responsibility for the responsible"? As we have seen in the past 2 weeks, your government will not save you when things go down. It is time for people to stop blaming the situations around them and take responsibility for their situations. Sure, you can't always see the forrest for the trees but that can only be an excuse for so long.
- GreedoLives0
i totally enjoy how people that have never suffered a day in their life like to preach to all those lazy lazy poor people. it's clearly their fault.
- ThreeSevenFive0
There comes a time in a persons life where they must look in the mirror and say This I am today, that I will be tomorrow.
You can only be affected by your surroundings for so long. You clearly cannot shrug your responsibility to yourself and depend on others.
- Pixter0
iPoor
- Rand0
I'm with you greedo. sooner or later most people run across a stretch of bad times, with their health or other unfortunate ciircumstances, and maybe start to feel a little more sympathetic
- KILLputer0
my mother came from a poor family. She was an honor student in high school but got knocked up with me when she was a senior. My father was a high school drop out who worked on cars for a living. Although by choice, my mother could have had an abortion and went away to college- but instead decided to have here child (me) and try to make love work.
My father's family was equally poor- they both struggled to raise a child in the 70's with crappy jobs and no opportunity. Sure they could have got on a bus and traveled to a better location looking for better work- but who would watch the child (me) then? Who is going to hire a high school drop out who works on cars for more than he is already making?
Soon after my brother and sister were born. My mom and dad got divorced because of my father's problem with alcoholism.
My mother worked 2 jobs, and was on welfare in order to pay for everything we needed.
We lived in a crappy miner's house.
We got free cheese.
I had to get lunch tickets at school that I was so embarassed to use I usually went without lunch altogether.Growing up I was so jealous of richer families I would steal to get by. I would have to steal jsut to get up some money to go to the movies with friends since my mother never had a dime to give me.
My mother got a 3rd job during the holidays so we can have christmas.
Without a parent around, my brother and sisters school grades sucked and they had no real discpline. I would be there for them when I was younger but as I got older I wanted to hang with friends instead of babysit family.
I started working when I was 14 years old on a farm and then a green house.
I moved out during my senior year of high school.
I went to college for Graphic Design without even owning my own computer. I learned photoshop 3 by reading books instead of using the application. I would use the computer lab in school when I could but at the time classes were held there too so that wasn't always an option.
My mother went to college at age 30 and is now a nurse with her own house and a nice life.
I moved to NYC and live on someone's floor for a year.
I live in Philly now- work for myself- and try to get by but still live paycheck to paycheck at times.
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Being poor is real.
- todelete__20
growing up poor i appreciate even more all that i have.
i'm glad i grew up on bologna, hot dogs, mac n cheese and vegetables grown in our backyard.
- blaw0
Being poor is real.
KILLputer
(Sep 12 05, 11:19)----
yes, sir. well put.
and if you happen to be either chris or brandy then you know that being rich is real, too. and it has nothing to do with $$$.
- c_valencia0
being a kid and poor is nothing, being an adult and poor is everything.
- KILLputer0
I have no desire to be rich, only to be doing what I feel makes me whole in life. My memories of growing up revolve around family and friends more than the amount of money we had.
I do, however, know for a fact that being poor can happen to anyone at anytime- and yes, almost especially- to us in America. I also know, that working not to be poor, attempting for dreams and goals, does not always a rich man make.
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- mikotondria20
One of the reasons Id look to the government when times were so hard that I couldnt make ends meet is because it is that same government that, whether I want them too or not, takes a proportion of my money when I do have it..
People can justifiably expect something back..This is not a validation of people whose sole purpose is to 'sponge' off the welfare system and not work. Then they are stealing my money, and the sooner the time comes when they put brick walls round those sink estates to keep these trash away from the rest of us the better.
Unless they're just poor.
- seed0
There is no excuse for not getting an education in the US if you want to. Young people in families below the poverty line can go to school for free with government grants. That's how I went to college.
- JazX0
There is no excuse for not getting an education in the US if you want to. Young people in families below the poverty line can go to school for free with government grants. That's how I went to college.
seed
(Sep 12 05, 12:23)Yup! nicely put
- KILLputer0
Before college there is the public school system, being a tennager growing up in a proverty stricken area with the idea that school is not so ideal as is crime.
Then off to college with Govt money- did it pay for you to move? To eat? To support your mom back home that relied on your income from work to help feed your brothers and sisters and help pay the rent? Did it pay for your books (mine did not) clothes, social activities?
What there is no excuse for is assuming that such social climates are black and white issues (not referring to human skin color here).
While your at it- why not explain what love is, the belief in God, how to stop war, and how to milk a duck with a crowbar.