First of all, welcome new member. As you haven't seen my older posts we can rehash some of them here, albeit abbreviated. Do take care to Ignore the personal insult artists on here. Many of them have lost a debate to me, and are still bitter about it.
My hypothesis is such that; a majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Are all of them a victim of circumstance? Probably not. Are they all a victim of their own bad decisions? Probably not again. So some messed-up their own lives, and some simply had bad luck. Difficult to tell which is which sometimes. But assuming the latter in favor of the former (as most folks on here do) is not correct. We only have some degree of free agency over our own lives. It's not unlimited. My greater point would be such that; living in America has gotten so expensive that in most situations it necessitates both parents working full time, or in the case of a single-parent household, one parent working much more than full time.
And in doing so has had deleterious effects on our society, and our children in particular. Negative effects which many on here only blame the individual for, rather than offer any meaningful solutions. Once again, they think if they scream "personal responsibility" really loudly that the problems will all just magically go away. Do you think my mortgage lender will accept that as payment?
I've lived in my fair share of sh!t-hole places myself. Roaches, rats, possums, burglars. Mine was also 6 hours away from home because that was the only full time job available after the great recession; because the republicans rat-f@cked the world economy with their financial deregulation.
I did the same thing with two friends, but there's only so many bedrooms in the house, and I wasn't there to watch over the place so you can only do that so much.
Yes, but that goes back to was it their fault, someone else's, or just bad luck. Hard to tell which is which with someone unless you know them, and the entirety of their circumstances. The default assumption from the far-right members on this forum is that everyone in a bad financial spot is there due to their own actions and "sucks to be you." Hardly a fact-based opinion.
I know both, those that over-spend, and those that save every dollar; only to be kneecapped by circumstances beyond their control.
If that's possible for you than good. But that math doesn't math for everyone in America. Just because you were able to make it work doesn't mean that all 342 million Americans can. Look man, somebody has to flip burgers and mop the floors. And the math of that doesn't work out if only one spouse is working. Like I said in another reply to a different member, the only couples with kids that are financially succeeding that I know of, are the ones with two incomes; aside from the ones where one spouse is a doctor. The capitalist machine demands all of their time, and then blames them for not having enough time for their kids. Pretty sick if you ask me.
Back to the; is it them, or something else argument...Now think of a family situation in which none of the grandparents are available, or even alive to help offset the costs of child care, or offer any support whatsoever...Perhaps you have more luck than many out there.
Careful now, I recall Hillary Clinton saying something like that in the 2016 election and Republicans got big mad over it. You don't want to make any enemies this early on in the thread...(sarcasm)
Same for me.
I also have plenty of what I call "f@ck-up friends." They're fun to be around, but I don't emulate their life choices. But bad choices alone don't account for the financial difficulties of tens of millions of Americans. Thinking so is just a far-right cop-out for letting big corporations screw over their workers, and then blame them for their own poor economic circumstances. Nobody who works 50 hours a week should be on food stamps.
Ahh, the first person on here acknowledging that luck plays a role, careful now, if you don't buy into this groups "meritocracy only" myth, they may try and digitally tar-and-feather you. Just because someone lost the lottery doesn't mean we should blame them for it.
Warren Buffett used to talk from time to time about the implications of what he called "the ovarian lottery"--the random accident of why you were born with one time, place, and identity rather than another. It's not a new idea. Some of you will know it as a version of what the philosopher John Rawls
conversableeconomist.com
It could be that as well. The old "keeping up with the Jone's" situation. But I was primarily referring to the capitalist machine that requires one to be on the financial treadmill your entire life, less ye want to become homeless and have to beg for scrapes from passerby's. Big business paying workers as little as possible for their labor, whilst claiming poverty, all the while making record profits. As our country continues the slow separation into two Americas. The haves, and the have nots; because the right-wingers endlessly simp for the corporations. A new Gilded Age if there ever was one.
In case you can't tell by now; it's the large corporations, the citizens united ruling, the Oligarchs who buy elections and convince all of these "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" on here that tax cuts for the rich and deficit spending will make our lives better (spoiler alert, it won't). But most of all...it's
Shareholder Value Theory. Every single bad economic/fiscal decision this country has made for 50 years can be traced back to this god awful idea. That's what needs to go more than anything else. Sadly its a mindset, so short of electro-shock therapy on the majority of the country I don't see it going away anytime soon.
That's the thing, the negative trade-offs resulting from structural changes are minimal, at least for the median American anyways. Jeff Bezos may have to downsize his Yacht, and Zuck may have to sell a bunker, but if that means more Americans can buy boats, and second homes, then its worth it.
Your post seems to understand both the concept of context and nuance, something that many of the posts on this thread usually lack...Stay classy Tex.
