Surprise, surprise! Growing up poor sucks.

[boomerang]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII

 

[moonbogg]

Jesus Christ. tl;dr city up in here. Being rich is better. Should they be punished for being better than poor people? Yes. They need to be taught a lesson. Only then will the poor become rich, and rich become poor, and then we can punish the newly rich people.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Ah yes, the old "you haven't been financially cleared to reproduce, so we're going to steal your baby and give it to someone richer than you" mode of governance. As long as we're going completely insane with "logical" methods of dealing with procreation, why not just chemically castrate everyone at birth and then people can pay a nominal fee to get their reproductive organs working again at some point in the future. $100,000 ought to weed out the riff-raff, eh? And hey, our teen pregnancy rates would be the envy of the world! Remember, they aren't reproductive rights, they're reproductive privileges, and them shits ain't free.

Nice assumption bro. I never even said anything about mandatory abortions, simply that there should be more of them. Free condoms, free abortions, drop pro-abortion leaflets all over town, Fleshlights and porn for all the horny men out there, I don't care. The link in the op had another story on poverty ranked highly, talking about the inability of poor people to budget and pay high mark-up for leasing, and of course the juicy "37-year-old grandmother" comes up (but hey, maybe granny and mom were both 18). Children are incredibly expensive and making the decision to have a bunch of them, especially when one is a single parent, is insane. Other (far more stable and economically-balanced) societies are perfectly fine with smaller families, there is no reason that Americans need to be special and have more than everyone else.

 

[rudeguy]

All I know is I've got a GED and making 70k a yr, my bro has a high school degree making about the same. There are jobs out there, good paying ones. Hard work and desire trumps race, wealth and education.

Good Enough Degree FTW!

We are in very similar situations.

 

[Nebor]

The worst off in this country are still better off than about 75% of the world's population. It's all relative. They also have astronomically higher odds of improving their lots in life than most of the world's population. Everyone in the OPs study is among the luckiest people in the world simply by merit of living in the US.

 

[thraashman]

Ahahahahahaha, in steps a fucktard to start slinging the word privilege around, right on cue.

Hey, worthless piece of shit, adults are trying to talk here. Perhaps you should go interact with the moderately retarded chimpanzees so that you're only interacting with those slightly above your intelligence level.

 

[shira]

I call these 'gauntlet threads' and shira is one of several instigators of same on a regular basis. They go like this: You 'insert political leaning here' not only don't understand 'insert perceived social injustice here' you are also responsible for 'social injustice mentioned earlier'! The rant continues on from there citing how mean people are that are not turning their income over to the government in large enough quantities because they are mean, vile people that don't understand something or another and blah, blah, blah, blah.

What a way to go through life. Perpetually angry because the people, nation, government, world, planet, solar system, etc., is not behaving in the manner you deem suitable. Throw down that gauntlet shira! You'll feel better for a short while until it all bubbles to the surface again.

Me angry? Pretty big assumption there. But if that belief helps you to avoid having to actually look at the inconveniet truth that those coming from an entrenched background of poverty really are operating at a huge disadvantage relative to the rest of us, I guess that tells us something about the extent of your commitment to the pursuit of knowlege.

 

[squarecut1]

It is no longer just the poor. Look at the cost of college tuition. What is a middle class kid supposed to do? Where would his/her parents find the money for it? So many are becoming slaves to the banks, paying off loans for decades. That is not the case with education in a lot of western countries. The conservatives need to get their heads out of the sand and see what is going on in this country.

 

[BoberFett]

Hey, worthless piece of shit, adults are trying to talk here. Perhaps you should go interact with the moderately retarded chimpanzees so that you're only interacting with those slightly above your intelligence level.

Go shove your fedora up your ass, you useless left wing crackpot.

 

[rudeguy]

Me angry? Pretty big assumption there. But if that belief helps you to avoid having to actually look at the inconveniet truth that those coming from an entrenched background of poverty really are operating at a huge disadvantage relative to the rest of us, I guess that tells us something about the extent of your commitment to the pursuit of knowlege.

And how do you explain the millions of people who grow up poor but do well?

 

[rudeguy]

It is no longer just the poor. Look at the cost of college tuition. What is a middle class kid supposed to do? Where would his/her parents find the money for it? So many are becoming slaves to the banks, paying off loans for decades. That is not the case with education in a lot of western countries. The conservatives need to get their heads out of the sand and see what is going on in this country.

Who says everyone needs to go to college? Ever think that thinking like yours caused the student debt crisis? Guess what...if you can't afford college you can get a job and pay for it! Or get a jib that will pay for it.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

It is no longer just the poor. Look at the cost of college tuition. What is a middle class kid supposed to do? Where would his/her parents find the money for it? So many are becoming slaves to the banks, paying off loans for decades. That is not the case with education in a lot of western countries. The conservatives need to get their heads out of the sand and see what is going on in this country.

Solution: attend a cheap state college, ignore the private colleges if you can't afford them, avoid diploma mills completely, and major in something that will make you money. If it takes decades to pay off student loans, you're doing it wrong. At my school I was able to pretty much make money by being a full-time student, as do all of my siblings attending the same school. Get good grades, get grants/scholarships/fellowships, avoid blowing $50/week on Starbucks & co., and undergrad is still reasonable.

 

[squarecut1]

Who says everyone needs to go to college? Ever think that thinking like yours caused the student debt crisis? Guess what...if you can't afford college you can get a job and pay for it! Or get a jib that will pay for it.

That is some bizarre thinking. Lets look at your solution, through which

- Only a tiny minority of those who can't afford college will ever get to go to college.

- The kids of rich parents would be the vast majority of college graduates, who in turn would get greater and greater control of society.

In other words, the oligarchy that is getting formed in America will get even stronger every generation. Before too long, we would be a third world country, where the rich are very rich and the middle class is just about non existent. We are already well on our way to be there.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

That is some bizarre thinking. Lets look at your solution, through which

- Only a tiny minority of those who can't afford college will ever get to go to college.

- The kids of rich parents would be the vast majority of college graduates, who in turn would get greater and greater control of society.

In other words, the oligarchy that is getting formed in America will get even stronger every generation. Before too long, we would be a third world country, where the rich are very rich and the middle class is just about non existent. We are already well on our way to be there.

You do realize that the number of Americans with college degrees has been gradually increasing for quite some time, right? The bubble has to burst at some point.

 

[theeedude]

If you are poor, get welfare and spend time raising and mentoring your kids instead of being an absentee parent working minimum wage.

 

[BoberFett]

If you are poor, get welfare and spend time raising and mentoring your kids instead of being an absentee parent working minimum wage.

Isn't that what they do now?

Oh wait, they've only checked off the first item on the list...

 

[HumblePie]

Jesus Christ. tl;dr city up in here. Being rich is better. Should they be punished for being better than poor people? Yes. They need to be taught a lesson. Only then will the poor become rich, and rich become poor, and then we can punish the newly rich people.

How about everyone just give all their money and possession to me both rich and poor? Then everyone else can be equally poor and I'll run away to somewhere else so that there will be no longer anyone here with any wealth. Then everyone will be equally poor again here. Win-win no?

 

[squarecut1]

If you are poor, get welfare and spend time raising and mentoring your kids instead of being an absentee parent working minimum wage.

Even then, often the father is absent. Completely absent from the kid(s) lives. Does not exist. That alone is one of the biggest issues. Heck even Obama has publicly assailed absent black fathers.

 

[Paratus]

All I know is I've got a GED and making 70k a yr, my bro has a high school degree making about the same. There are jobs out there, good paying ones. Hard work and desire trumps race, wealth and education.

Your hard work was commendable. That's puts you in the 4th quintile.

Your hard work means your outcome was better than almost 60% of rich high shool drop outs.

Its an amazing system where Poor + Good Decisions + Hard Work = Rich + Poor Decisions.
The system is definitely a meritocracy. I bet if we cut capital gains tax rates the deserving would have an even better outcome.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Even then, often the father is absent. Completely absent from the kid(s) lives. Does not exist. That alone is one of the biggest issues. Heck even Obama has publicly assailed absent black fathers.

Hence, the need for more birth control/prevention.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2014/10/Poor-Grads-Rich-Dropouts.jpg

It's amazing how people can spin a graph showing that poor college grads have more 80th percentile earners than rich drop outs as a demonstration of inescapable income inequality.

 

[squarecut1]

Does racism exist in America? Yes.

Do people also use racism as a crutch to justify many personal failings that have nothing to do with racism? Yes.

Both of the above are true.

 

[HumblePie]

How about everyone just give all their money and possession to me both rich and poor? Then everyone else can be equally poor and I'll run away to somewhere else so that there will be no longer anyone here with any wealth. Then everyone will be equally poor again here. Win-win no?

This sounds like a really great idea! we all should get started on it.

 

[Paratus]

This sounds like a really great idea! we all should get started on it.

If you get all the money because you are the head of the worldwide socialist party and we all live on a dollar a day, then no you commie bastard.

However if you get all the money because you are the CEO of a mega corp in a capitalist-libertarian utopia that has cornered the market on all products, services and labor and we all service the corp on a dollar a day then that's just fine because freedom.

Bonus points if you are a rich high school drop out.

 

[Genx87]

41% of poor college grads make it into the top 40% of income earners. That seems like a pretty good statistic to me. The rich highschool drop out lives off a trust fund. The fact so many poor can match rich dropouts is a good thing.

Shira when are you giving away your wealth? I know you said at one point you are the 1%.