Poor People Ages 24-31 or 32+

I just downgraded from a convertible sport car to a 93' Honda Civic this week. Poor enough to post?

I just downgraded from a convertible sport car to a 93' Honda Civic this week. Poor enough to post?

That depends. What was said sports car?

I've got a family of 5 on one income, does that count?

We just had to cut down our waitstaff strictly to weekends in our house in the Hamptons..Do I qualify?

Ah yes. The "I pull myself up with my bootstraps, they can too!" You are aware that the majority of the poor work full time, correct? And about a quarter of poor people who don't work are under the age of 14 and not legally able to work?

There's work. But it's damn hard to support a family on 7.25 an hour. There's no work that PAYS WORTH A DAMN, is the problem. (At least if you're unskilled and uneducated.)

Just gonna put this out there: I haven't found a paving company in recent years yet that pays their bottom of the rung laborers less than $10 per hour to start. Also, they should have thought of the consequences before procreating. Again, their bad decisions should not in any way weigh upon my obligations. I haven't (and won't) have children, because I know it is financially unfeasible to do so, even at what I make, which is well above the American average. It comes down to personal responsibility, and not making one person's problem everyone's problem. That crap only work on the small scale, like communes, where everyone knows each other. The hell do I care if some douche can't afford to feed his five kids because he made a bunch of crap decisions in his life?

Um, I have not had a job YET making $10 an hour, except weekend or holiday pay, which is not the same as the base. Retail starts at the minimum, and restaurants start below that. Not everyone can do hard, manual labor. *kitten*, at Menard's (which is still retail and started me off at 8.30 with a whopping 10 cent raise after 90 days) I am expected to lift up to 50 lbs of freight on my own and push heavy carts and use pallet jacks. It's fine for me, but there are a lot of middle-aged and even elderly people that work here, and I worry about them. Seventy-year-old men shouldn't have to be getting jobs lifting 50 lb boxes of nails and screws up on an 8 ft ladder because their children got laid off from THEIR factory jobs and no one can find work. Fifty year old men shouldn't be working two part-time jobs and working from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. just to get by. Moms shouldn't be putting their kids in daycare which they can only afford by working two jobs themselves. (Oh, and since you mention that they shouldn't procreate, how do you feel about abortion? Don't you find it strange that the loudest protests of abortion usually come out of the same mouths of those who condemn social programs, including health care, food stamps and birth control? According to what logic does that make sense?)

My point is-- it is neither easy nor guaranteed that anyone will make enough money to survive, or to provide for family when they need help. Just because you were fortunate enough to have opportunity to have stable work doesn't mean it's the same opportunities all around.

Um, I have not had a job YET making $10 an hour, except weekend or holiday pay, which is not the same as the base. Retail starts at the minimum, and restaurants start below that. Not everyone can do hard, manual labor. *kitten*, at Menard's (which is still retail and started me off at 8.30 with a whopping 10 cent raise after 90 days) I am expected to lift up to 50 lbs of freight on my own and push heavy carts and use pallet jacks. It's fine for me, but there are a lot of middle-aged and even elderly people that work here, and I worry about them. Seventy-year-old men shouldn't have to be getting jobs lifting 50 lb boxes of nails and screws up on an 8 ft ladder because their children got laid off from THEIR factory jobs and no one can find work. Fifty year old men shouldn't be working two part-time jobs and working from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. just to get by. Moms shouldn't be putting their kids in daycare which they can only afford by working two jobs themselves. (Oh, and since you mention that they shouldn't procreate, how do you feel about abortion? Don't you find it strange that the loudest protests of abortion usually come out of the same mouths of those who condemn social programs, including health care, food stamps and birth control? According to what logic does that make sense?)

My point is-- it is neither easy nor guaranteed that anyone will make enough money to survive, or to provide for family when they need help. Just because you were fortunate enough to have opportunity to have stable work doesn't mean it's the same opportunities all around.

It's not all about physical capabilities. Can't do hard manual labor? Get a commercial driver's license. Companies everywhere are hiring truck drivers, and most of them make at least $35,000 per year. I was always told "the two easiest jobs you can have are sitting on your *kitten*, and running your mouth." In a truck, you have a seat and a CB, what more could you ask for in an easy job?

I have actually tried to get a job as a school bus driver a couple years ago, but no one ever called me back. Supposedly you didn't even need a CDL for that, just on-the-job training, but kind of difficult when you can't even get an interview scheduled after talking to multiple people. As for trucking, it's an "easy" job in that you sit, but it's difficult in that you're basically on the road all day every day, and can barely take breaks to piss and sleep. You have to sleep in the truck too, which seems pretty claustrophobic to me. Also it's a lifestyle conducive to horrible eating, no exercise and bad health. No job is without its drawbacks or requirements-- I also tried to be a taxi driver, but I have had exactly one accident (in 2009) that prevented me from even being qualified for most taxi agencies until last year, or three years after the accident had happened.

still on the same wavelength...That's my cat in the picture!

It really is quite interesting how people assume that they did everything themselves through their own hard work. Not to negate their hard work but I have yet to find someone that truly did it themselves. To claim as such implies that everyone who didn't succeed had the exact same circumstances as yourself and decided consciously to not have a good life.

It really is quite interesting to see how quickly people are only willing to work from their own frame work instead of acknowledging that there are other situations that invalidate their argument.

Your class based reproduction argument was interesting. Basically following your scheme there would be no people from the lower socio-economic class who would be allowed to have children. Or even have sex for that matter since they could not afford birth control or any other preventatives. Also do you think it is fair that children suffer for the mistakes of the parent. Then again you did say you were against any spending so is it safe to say yes? This is quite exciting, I look forward to your answers.

Then again I plan on devoting my life to trying and improving the life of as many people as possible. That is the social contract I have agreed to, and society has fronted the funds for the long term benefit.

Thank you, it is always good to see how the mind of someone who lacks external empathy functions, very insightful.

I came from a single mother who had to work three part time jobs just to keep us off of government assistance. I was put out on my *kitten* to 'sink or swim, work or starve' when I was 19. I have a ninth grade education to boot. Yeah, I'd say I took a ****ty situation and made the best of it. The only people who did anything for me, are the mother who birthed me and struggled to keep me fed, the guy who gave me a chance with a job, and the people who built the company before I got there.

Of course, you could get really ridiculous with it and bring up history all the way back to the founding of the country, but I think that would be stretching it a bit, since everyone currently alive here today benefits from those things.

ETA: I never said people shouldn't be allowed to procreate. I said that they shouldn't do it if they can't support the life they are creating. I am not a fan of 'rules' against people doing anything, including ruining their own lives. I just don't believe that the rest of us should be expected to foot the bill for said ruined lives.

I'm poor as dirt! Yay!