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What It's Like To Be Poor - And Make Terrible Decisions
There are many reasons why the poor are 'poor' or why the middle-class is deteriorating into a state of being 'poor' but as this first-person account of the self-defeating feedback loops of poverty's trap harrowingly suggests, escaping that social strata (as we noted previously) is becoming ever more difficult. Of course, a George Carlin noted previously, "the only true American value is... buying things," which leaves the 'poor' increasingly losing hope. "Rest is a luxury for the rich," the author notes, "planning is not in the mix," as she explains why poverty has forced her to "make terrible decisions."
Authored by @KillerMartinis (Killer Martinis blog) via The Burning Platform blog,
Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, poverty thoughts
There's no way to structure this coherently. They are random observations that might help explain the mental processes. But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it's rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of.
Rest is a luxury for the rich. I get up at 6AM, go to school (I have a full courseload, but I only have to go to two in-person classes) then work, then I get the kids, then I pick up my husband, then I have half an hour to change and go to Job 2. I get home from that at around 1230AM, then I have the rest of my classes and work to tend to. I'm in bed by 3. This isn't every day, I have two days off a week from each of my obligations. I use that time to clean the house and soothe Mr. Martini and see the kids for longer than an hour and catch up on schoolwork. Those nights I'm in bed by midnight, but if I go to bed too early I won't be able to stay up the other nights because I'll fuck my pattern up, and I drive an hour home from Job 2 so I can't afford to be sleepy. I never get a day off from work unless I am fairly sick. It doesn't leave you much room to think about what you are doing, only to attend to the next thing and the next. Planning isn't in the mix.
When I was pregnant the first time, I was living in a weekly motel for some time. I had a minifridge with no freezer and a microwave. I was on WIC. I ate peanut butter from the jar and frozen burritos because they were 12/$2. Had I had a stove, I couldn't have made beef burritos that cheaply. And I needed the meat, I was pregnant. I might not have had any prenatal care, but I am intelligent enough to eat protein and iron whilst knocked up.
I know how to cook. I had to take Home Ec to graduate high school. Most people on my level didn't. Broccoli is intimidating. You have to have a working stove, and pots, and spices, and you'll have to do the dishes no matter how tired you are or they'll attract bugs. It is a huge new skill for a lot of people. That's not great, but it's true. And if you fuck it up, you could make your family sick. We have learned not to try too hard to be middle-class. It never works out well and always makes you feel worse for having tried and failed yet again. Better not to try. It makes more sense to get food that you know will be palatable and cheap and that keeps well. Junk food is a pleasure that we are allowed to have; why would we give that up? We have very few of them.
The closest Planned Parenthood to me is three hours. That's a lot of money in gas. Lots of women can't afford that, and even if you live near one you probably don't want to be seen coming in and out in a lot of areas. We're aware that we are not "having kids," we're "breeding." We have kids for much the same reasons that I imagine rich people do. Urge to propagate and all. Nobody likes poor people procreating, but they judge abortion even harder.
Convenience food is just that. And we are not allowed many conveniences. Especially since the Patriot Act passed, it's hard to get a bank account. But without one, you spend a lot of time figuring out where to cash a check and get money orders to pay bills. Most motels now have a no-credit-card-no-room policy. I wandered around SF for five hours in the rain once with nearly a thousand dollars on me and could not rent a room even if I gave them a $500 cash deposit and surrendered my cell phone to the desk to hold as surety.
Nobody gives enough thought to depression. You have to understand that we know that we will never not feel tired. We will never feel hopeful. We will never get a vacation. Ever. We know that the very act of being poor guarantees that we will never not be poor. It doesn't give us much reason to improve ourselves. We don't apply for jobs because we know we can't afford to look nice enough to hold them. I would make a super legal secretary, but I've been turned down more than once because I "don't fit the image of the firm," which is a nice way of saying "gtfo, pov." I am good enough to cook the food, hidden away in the kitchen, but my boss won't make me a server because I don't "fit the corporate image." I am not beautiful. I have missing teeth and skin that looks like it will when you live on b12 and coffee and nicotine and no sleep. Beauty is a thing you get when you can afford it, and that's how you get the job that you need in order to be beautiful. There isn't much point trying.
Cooking attracts roaches. Nobody realizes that. I've spent a lot of hours impaling roach bodies and leaving them out on toothpick pikes to discourage others from entering. It doesn't work, but is amusing.
"Free" only exists for rich people. It's great that there's a bowl of condoms at my school, but most poor people will never set foot on a college campus. We don't belong there. There's a clinic? Great! There's still a copay. We're not going. Besides, all they'll tell you at the clinic is that you need to see a specialist, which seriously? Might as well be located on Mars for how accessible it is. "Low-cost" and "sliding scale" sounds like "money you have to spend" to me, and they can't actually help you anyway.
I smoke. It's expensive. It's also the best option. You see, I am always, always exhausted. It's a stimulant. When I am too tired to walk one more step, I can smoke and go for another hour. When I am enraged and beaten down and incapable of accomplishing one more thing, I can smoke and I feel a little better, just for a minute. It is the only relaxation I am allowed. It is not a good decision, but it is the only one that I have access to. It is the only thing I have found that keeps me from collapsing or exploding.
I make a lot of poor financial decisions. None of them matter, in the long term. I will never not be poor, so what does it matter if I don't pay a thing and a half this week instead of just one thing? It's not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn't that I blow five bucks at Wendy's. It's that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be. It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to. There's a certain pull to live what bits of life you can while there's money in your pocket, because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway. When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning. I imagine having a lot of it is the same thing.
Poverty is bleak and cuts off your long-term brain. It's why you see people with four different babydaddies instead of one. You grab a bit of connection wherever you can to survive. You have no idea how strong the pull to feel worthwhile is. It's more basic than food. You go to these people who make you feel lovely for an hour that one time, and that's all you get. You're probably not compatible with them for anything long-term, but right this minute they can make you feel powerful and valuable. It does not matter what will happen in a month. Whatever happens in a month is probably going to be just about as indifferent as whatever happened today or last week. None of it matters. We don't plan long-term because if we do we'll just get our hearts broken. It's best not to hope. You just take what you can get as you spot it.
I am not asking for sympathy. I am just trying to explain, on a human level, how it is that people make what look from the outside like awful decisions. This is what our lives are like, and here are our defense mechanisms, and here is why we think differently. It's certainly self-defeating, but it's safer. That's all. I hope it helps make sense of it.
############################################
And Jim Quinn's Burning Platform blog notes - It appears that she’s been getting lots and lots of responses to her letter, good and bad.
Here’s her response to people accusing her of bitching.
DEAR GUY WITH HURT FEELINGS;
So I have been wandering the Internet to see where this piece I wrote wound up. And I am rather amused at one fairly standard reaction:
Oh, typical poor person bitching. Rich people work hard too. If you don’t think positively nothing good will ever happen.
Here is a disclaimer, and now that it is on the Internet with my name on it I’ll hear no more about this:
Yes. Rich people work hard too. Nobody is telling you that you are lazy, rich people. What I am saying is that I am not lazy. That is a different thing entirely than impugning your work ethic. It’s actually got nothing to do with you at all. I do appreciate your need to read some thoughts from someone who is poor and make it about your relative merit, but you should know that it kind of makes you look like you struggle with reading comprehension. Because it’s not about that. I actually specifically said that more than once. I know, it is frustrating to see conversations happening and know that your opinions are considered irrelevant.
Try to repress the urge to tell me that you do more physical labor than I do in a day, though, because it makes you look silly. I have never met a wealthy person washing dishes at Denny’s. I am sure one exists, but I don’t think we can go assuming that the majority of people who live in the middle and upper classes are working on shop floors or in warehouses.
And about the happy shiny attitude: are you seriously telling me that you legitimately think that the thing that is stopping me from getting a lucky break is that I simply don’t believe hard enough? Tell me, if I clap my hands and really believe, can I bring fairies back from the brink as well? Do you think I am stupid? I am not. I can read the news. I know that class mobility is decreasing and wealth is stratifying and for many of us, hope is going to stay unfulfilled. You do not get to tell me how to process the fact that “success” is a crapshoot in this America, because I can tell you that hard work and talent alone aren’t going to do it.
There’s one decent job opening for every hundred talented and hardworking people. If you happen to be hardworking but not particularly skilled, your life will most likely consist of making someone’s shareholders happy. It will be degrading and exhausting. And you are fucking high if you think that simply thinking positive thoughts will change the nature of the economy. That is not how the economy works.
Your implication that I am too stupid to know that is laughable, because your average ten-year-old in the ghetto knows that the game is rigged. Fuck you for demanding that I pretend it isn’t to make you a little more comfortable. It isn’t going to happen. I don’t mind, particularly, that we have settled on this system. It’ll change again soon. Rich people know that; it’s why they’re retreating into guarded conclaves and hiring extra security for their malls. But you don’t get to pretend that this system we have decided on, the one in which we are pretending that we have never heard of the Gilded Age so that we don’t have to acknowledge that we are doing it again, is anything like fair or meritocratic. That is patent bullshit. Stop it. I do not mind talented people having money. I mind stupid people with money saying that they must be smart because: meritocracy. That is terrible logic.
Here is the thing: nobody lives without something in their lives that grounds them. It might be something simple and pure, or something big and complex. But there is something, because human nature makes us find whatever is available to find a reason to live. My point is not that it isn’t true, my point is that if the thing that you have to hold onto is that at least other people have it worse, it’s kind of depressing. It’s survival. It is not uplifting. You can’t simply walk into the life of someone who is actually chemically depressed and demand that they paste a fucking grin on. Rather, you can, but you’re an asshole. And double the assholery if you can afford access to medicine and sleep and the things that we would need to solve the depression and you still stand there telling me to find a pair of bootstraps and just Think Positive!
Perhaps, friend, you could try reading the damn news before you tell me that how I should feel about the way the economy functions and my place in it. I think your idea of the economy must be pretty simplistic. I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Oh, and one more thing: It is entirely possible, especially since about a decade ago, for someone who was raised in a higher class to be poor. I am one of those people. The fact that I didn’t grow up wondering if I would eat does not negate that I have spent much of my adult life with that concern. So, in conclusion, a giant and full-throated Fuck You to the people who are attempting to avoid the conversation by parsing whether or not my vocabulary means that I am insufficiently poor to be allowed to speak. Because I know goddamned well you wouldn’t have even read my first post if I were speaking in my vernacular.
Please, if you are one of the people who want to discuss whether or not I qualify as working poor because I have a capable brain as though the two have anything to do with each other, feel free to find something more productive to do. You could watch delightful children’s programming, or read Lemony Snicket. There are plenty of coloring books and if you get the good crayons you’ll have fun. Maybe you could hitch a ride to someplace with skeeball and tickets which you could exchange for prizes. If you are feeling pretentious you could try reading the kids’ version of Rousseau or Toqueville. I would suggest the original versions, but I worry that you might miss those points. They tended to speak in their vernacular, too.
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she's doing alright for a weekend.
http://www.gofundme.com/59yrak
cha ching
$51,039 raised by 1,749 people in 9 days.
What in the name of motherfuck is going on here... 51K is more than 20% I make in a fucking year after taxes... and this is made in nine days of time. Notice I can spell the fucking number of days in letters because it is a cardinal number.
Fuck this shit.
Take solace Skateboarder. If she is who she presented herself as, this money won't help her a bit. It will maybe buy a car, some fingernails, smokes and some quality weed, but in a few weeks it will be back to zero.Bills will be due, but money will be gone. "I'm going to Disney World!"
My guess is the whole story is a farce, but I took it at face value for the purpose of commenting. There are definitely some real poverty issues represented within.
better than that, she just hit 'peak rape' in the middle class tax bracket. No EIC, no medicaid, no WIC, no HUD, no electric subsidy, no SNAP, no jack shit from anyone.
Not sure how crowdfunding is taxed but when she sees the gross income from both of her jobs go to uncle sam she will have a whole new outlook on the price of terrible decisions.
Probably she will become a conservative pundit. SHe is definitely smart enough for that gig.
Guys, she made four more thousand overnight. She better be smoking that good shit.
Wow, she apparently has marketing skills..... I do feel sorta conflicted after reading her site.
Someone who puts that much effort into trolling for money should be able to focus that in other ways as well.
Jim Quinn will feel vindicated, I'm sure...
For every one of these 'ass pieces,' as I will call them, how many true struggles of the truly poor and desparate get ignored... I don't buy a fucking piece of this shit story.
You ever slept in a bush in the cold because you got nowhere else to go mothefucker? HAVE YOU? Then shut the fuck up and move about your business.
"You ever slept in a bush in the cold because you got nowhere else to go mothefucker?"
Amen from one who has!
Then you and I are on the same page. :)
It's not really your neighborhood until you sleep on the sidewalk....
Appears to be fraud; former political wordsmith?
Very sad.
Dear god ZH has the most jaded motherfuckers on the planet.
Appears to be fraud?
"Hi I am a down and out loser, resigned to stay that way, here's my funding page, thanks."
Fakerrrrrr. She's loaded!!!!!!!!
She's a rich Jewish man trying to steal from us again!!!!!
lol.
Just kill yourselves. Thanks.
I agree with the poster you lambasted. There is too much that doesn't add up. Someone who has learned to write as well as this has also learned to think critically. (At least to a degree) In fact, they decided to have a go at monetizing their writing skill. (Although it isn't exaclty excellent writing, but is is not that of a downtrodden layperson.)
COnsider the writing ability of the people you know personally. I happen to know some folks who are fairly well of financially, and sound like peaple of reasonable intellect in conversation, but look like utter fools when attempting to write.
Nay... this seems contrived to me, but we can take it at face value for the sake of discussion.
or we can learn from this, and we each set up our own fundme page.
writing ability and income have no correlation. maybe even inverse at best. I have been aa freelance writer on ocassion, it pays for shit and it really pays for shit now that third worlders compete for the space. A penny a word, whilst not shakespeare, can be found.
melville died broke, twain pissed most of his money away speculating, writers seldom get published and are usually deep in debt by the time they get a decent royalty check from anywhere.
But if you want to shred her story I would start here
https://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF-8&q=planned+parenthood+san+francisco...
"The closest planned parenthood is 3 hours away.."
No it isn't.
She's from Cedar City, Utah. I can see why you thought she was from SF lol.
She has found a way to monetize rich white guilt. Funding goal is 55K, but she may need to bump that up. Can we get a hay yo up in heah? You go girl!
55K was yesterday's second already bumped up goal. When I first saw her gofundmen page yesterday it was a 49k goal.
Sending money somewhere because you saw a sad looking African kid on TV: $40
Sending money somewhere else because some kid is dying and wants to go to Disneyland: $30
Did that charity have cancer in its name? $20
Using your credit card to send money to the author of an unverified sob story on the internet: You're a fucking idiot, but on the bright side at least most of your money will go to the person scamming you and not an army of lawyers taking a cut.
I saw this yesterday and my scam alert went into high gear. Now she's looking for financial advisor. But, she has successfully gamed the system. Is there a gofundme site for Kony?
"It promptly went insane. I have raised my typical yearly income as of this update."
"Rest is a luxury for the rich,"
Funny, I know some wealthy people and they are among the hardest working people I know, as are their children.
It was amusing to hear a CEO state his son holds a patent but can't find a job.
Well, She sure slapped him down.
To sum it up:
The rich profit from renting life essencials to the poor.
The poor work hard to be able to pay for all those basics
If there were no social constructs, no businesses, no civilization, to whom would you go to buy all your basics?
uhmmm...... people. Social contructs, businesses, and civilizations are not "whoms".
Social constructs, businesses and civilizations all consist of *people*, from "whom" I can buy basic shit.
An incorporeal entity doesn't selling anything. The first comment implies that we would not be able to do any trade without them. That is the big lie.
The civilization doesn't exist. It never has . It never will. It's an idea.
We need ,as people, to stop anthropomorphizing ideas. It destroys individuals being accountable i.e. "the gov't did blah blah blah to me".
The government does nothing. It is a function of the State which isn't corporeal either.
People do things to people. People buy things from people. and so on.
If you are going to attack grammar, watch your own very closely:
"An incorporeal entity doesn't selling [sic] anything."
> The first comment implies that we would not be able to do any trade without them.
Yes, the OP is full of shit.
> The civilization doesn't exist.
Civilization is a process. This process exists. However, we might discuss whether human development has passed apogee. This process may be stagnating.
The "govT does nothing, people do everything" part is interesting. I will try to remember that.
Who the fuck told you that you are poor? Whoever it was, find that asshole and kill them. That motherfucker is trying to control you, and you are letting them.
Poor people have it a lot worse than you.
Maybe if some of you little coddled bitches would look at the rich in fear instead of pure hatred and jealousy, we could actually change some shit.
Nice to see you have done something for yourself in creating your fund me page. You have now joined with the rich you so vehemently hate, using the richest tactic in the whoring book, manipulation. Congrats on being a fool.
Sounds like a crock to me but she's made 50+K off it so far. Her positions are pure BS and only people that have never worked their way out of being poor would find it sympathetic.
Get back to work honey.
My nieces mother died from cervical cancer when my niece was 15 yrs old. She watched her mother fight for 4 years, every fucking day of her life just to spend every moment she had to be there for her kids. My nieces father never existed in her life, so my wife and i took her in. My niece did nothing wrong, never had a chance to make bad decisions, and goes through life hopeful that things will improve for her. She now lives alone, in a 300 sq foot apartnent, works 40 hours a week, and refuses to take any government assistance whatsoever. So, my dear.... here is my question. Since she has done nothing wrong to be in her situation, works her ass off to make ends meet, respectfully, and never makes these bad choices you seem to make every day, i propose we reward her with every dollar you receive through your fund me page, anonymously. This little girl obviously deserves it more thsn you. Sound good?
Set up your own beggars' fund.
DonT coattail on hers!
If you're unemployed at 13 weeks, I've said before you need to be in a Republican politician's office conducting your job search. The office, utilities, restroom, lights, desks, fax machines and computers should be your to use. And if you never find another job, you never leave the Republican's office.
You keep thinking that way, and her story will be your story.
The Dems won't let you loiter
In my life, I have had a nice income, and a zero income. For those who have not experienced both, allow me to assist: It is far easier to have a nice income.
Wealth was not a consideration. It was my fault. I chose to live as if I had wealth, not realizing that what I had was income. (A temporary situation)
I never reviewed my choices until after the nice income had vanished. Then, I wanted to know what had happened. Somehow, I stumbled into ZH. I learned much about what was going on, and even more importantly I learned the difference between income and wealth, currency and money, rich and poor.
I can totally relate to the author of this post. I know the mindset. I am a trailer park kid.
Poverty exists in the mind. It exists in the apathy expressed in her words, and manifests in her actions. Fear and doubt plague the poor. It is a self perpetuating construct of the mind. Yes, there are outside factors which contribute. Those factors are called life. Help is not on the way. I know how trite it sounds, but it is upon each of us to find our way out. Step one: Gratitude.
Thanks Tyler.
Let this be a lesson girls. Hook hard and fast when you are young and still have your looks, because it's all down hilll after 20.
Girls: learn German and hook in Hamburg. Or Dutch for Amsterdam.
Fully legal and complete with full health-care and retirement-plan coverage.
With proper health-care, you can hook well into your 40s
and then go on welfare as a form of early retirement, until retirement kicks in.
The author lacks the benefits of having a meaningful philosophy of life, and she is passing on a life of stressed-out frustration to her offspring. She is well-intentioned, but her primary mantra (in terms of action and self-reported time commitment) is that a few more dollars will solve all of her problems. She lacks an understanding that her life is out of balance.
Lack of sleep wreaks havoc with your entire system, most notably your immune system and mental alacrity. "Planning is a luxury I can't afford" is a cop out that really means "I have heard talk of the benfits of planning, but I cannot grasp the abstract concept of the long term benefits" with perhaps a little bit of,"I tried planning a few times but it didn't work out like I expected, and my plans were too ridgid to adapt to new circumstances" mixed in for good measure.
There is also the issue of acknowledging that she has made and continues to make poor decisions. Please struggle to make proper decisions. Self improvement is a constant effort. Also, poor decision have consequences, such as the dental issues. Sorry, Babe, I can't brush your teeth for you.
Now, what the author has going for her is god-given inner toughness that will carry her through, regardless of wherever our economy is headed. Her life needs balance, and she and her hubby need to make a few grown-up decisions, such ass, "We are going to hunker down and live within our means." "We are going to be clean, as healthy as possible, and as fit as is realistic, and as happy as we can muster as an example to our offspring." "We are going to laugh at every opportunity." "Together we are going to take on the woprld and we will win."
Loose the consumer mentality, and keep your kids from succombing to it as well. Food, shelter, clothing (my kids can amuse themselves for a hour at a time mining through a thrift store digging for the eventual 50 cent treasure.) and electric power are first priorities. Cigarettes and junk food are guilty pleasures that should only be indulged sporadically. (How wonderfully tasty is a simple potato chip if only allowed on special occasions? Eaten every day, they lose their emotional impact.)
If you want to learn how to get by with minimal expense, study other cultures. The "I have the power to move mountains by working/schooling 20 hours a day" but "I am too lazy to cook and clean for my family" does not understand that what differentiates between eating out and eating in is the ingredient of love. she doesn't have to be a slave to the stove, but her kids should be able to cook on a cub scout level by the age 12 or so. Cub scouts also know how to clean up after a meal. Fighting bugs should be a family effort, but I suggest keeping her inner,"Vlad, the Impaler" under wraps.
Get organized. Live within your means. Take ownership. Live within the limits of reasonableness. Finish up the formal schooling. (Never stop learning.) Be a good example of revelling in the positive to your kids. Count your blessings. (In some regions of the far east, having access to rats and and cockroaches is an unimaginable luxury!) Working yourself to an early grave is a fool's way to waste a life.
Don't be victimized by the advertising images that everyone has plenty of sex and money but me.
Up x1000
If you can articulate your situation it seems reasonable you should work on changing your approach if your not satisfied where you are headed.
I guess creating a begging site could be considered as a positive solution to those who never look past the windshield.
..the seeds of the new (Calcutta inspired) normal were sown decades ago- and it's working.
Jesus, it is difficult enough not being poor and staying such. I could not imagine fighting from poverty. That said, from my own experience, self-delusion offers the greatest leverage to social mobility. This assumes that one has an otherwise optimally functioning brain.
Realism in too high doses kills, bichez.
If I were poor, I'd head to paradise (someplace like the Maldives?). May as well be poor there then someplace cold like Detroit.
Will my SNAP card work in the Maldives?
For someone who is going to college, working two jobs, she sure has a lot of time to devote to her twitter account and her blog.
And I like the juxtaposition of this statement from her money-winning essay: "The closest Planned Parenthood to me is three hours. That's a lot of money in gas.". Compared to her statement on her Facebook page, where she wrote on 8/13/11, (in her job as a political consultant): "Imagine how committed you have to be to travel for, say, six hours round-trip to Ames to sit in an un-air-conditioned tent in August in the hope that your favored candidate will win a fake election."
Someone also commented on her gofundme page another set of statements: Linda Tirado: "I will not waste it on frivolity, but I will spend it on being healthy and making sure that if one of us gets the flu the electric bill is still paid." Linda Tirado posting on Monday: "It turns out that my best friend's birthday is two days after my husband's. So we're all spending two nights in Vegas without children. It's gonna be awesome."
I haven't sent any money yet.
Relax... Poor is the new rich.
I was 12 when I realized if I wanted something I would have to earn it. Hell, I was younger. At 8 I would walk to the store with a note from the neighbor lady and buy her a pack of smokes and earn a dime. I picked fruit summers and made 60 dollars or so a month in 68-70 when 60 dollars bouught something. Went to college in my mid 30's while working full time. I have made well over 100K a year and have a current income this month of 0 from employment. I was hit by a hit and run driver a month after losing a 20 year postion with a company that went BK. Blew out left shoulder and unable to lift much including the grandson who is now over 25 lbs. I have not considered myself rich or poor. I am thankful. I am thankful I have hot and cold water. I am thankful I don't need to heat my house with firewood I cut and split. I am thankful for electricity. I am thankful I don't live in Washington IL where many lives were changed forever. I need not measure my income against others to look around and feel good or bad about myself. I will help where needed, give if led and stand up in the face of evil when given the opportunity. This whole rich vs poor is just a new twist on a very ancient meme. 90% of life is attitude. Don't give to an online stranger,, why not help the neighbor lady?
Bingo!
I can trade poor stories with the best of them from the first half of my life. Thank goodness not nowadays. The things that made the difference were faith, attitude and especially, long term planning. This gal ain't gonna make it.
What a pathetic POS waste of internet space.
Is anyone screening this garbage befoe it gets posted?
The Tylers threw us this scrap for us to fight over.
It's weekend.
You keep making me laugh! Your comments are like that stick your guy in the picture is holding.
My comments are as dull as his stick?
I'll have to sharpen them up a bit.
Argue your limitations and they are yours.
BTW...you're damn right I don't want to be served in a restaurant by a person that has no teeth and appears to be 10 steps from death. If I were able to afford to go out to dinner.
Edit: All that said - we are at a point not last seen since the Great Depression...I do believe we are at a point where more and more people have NO HOPE. As opposed to those times where there was always the hope that you could get out of a vicious circle. Thanks progressives.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Having read the article, my gut feeling is that there is no truth to her story. Cue Al Sharpton.
jb
Killing roaches is very difficult. I tried sprays, foggers, powders(borax, diatomation earth), bait traps, etc. But they never got the job done. The only solution that I found to work was
Dupont Advion Cockroach Gel Bait.If you ever get roaches, buy this stuff on amazon to kill them. Your roaches will be gone within a few weeks. Most will die in a few days. There are some good youtube videos on how to use the product(don't waste money on the caulking gun they try to sell). Highly recommended! You're welcome.
Thanks for the bug tip! Writing this down.
We're in FL so maybe the cockroaches aren't as "steely" as those in NYC and other places but I bought Enforcer anti-flea house spray (gallon) and so far it kills everything from fleas to spiders -at least in our case. Animals still pick up fleas outside but we've been battling those successfully with a Vet's Pest natural spray w/clove and peppermint...ya gotta like clove, however.
The writer of this story frustrated the BEANS out me--sorry, but when you have kids, school must wait or must be part-time. You take care of them no matter what it takes and you shut your whine hole. You make them good food and quit looking for excuses. Dig ditches if you have to or wait to have kids.
you know, it is fine to write this crap about "wait to have kids"....and yet, as the far right is doing, spend every waking moment working to spread absolute misinformation about conception to the high school kids, IF NOT, denying sex education in its entirety. Working to make access to basic birth control impossible for poor and working poor families.
Let's face it, the far right is doing everything it can at the moment to put these people down and keep 'em down.....no matter what it takes.....and if that means someone trying to feed five kids on a walmart salary, its all good. they will never get out of the hole and never be competition for their little lily white Zak who has the brain the size of a pea......
Zak's place at an ivy will be secured.
Zak's job at the upper middle tier of a major corporation won't be threatened.
And the rule of relatively stupid white men will be maintained. Forever.
No broads, no brown people will interfere with what is the white male's divine right.
If no one will take responsibility for their own actions, who will? You? You don't improve poor people's lives by enabling them to do more of the same. The leftist agenda is nothing but enabling by supporting lifestyles without judgment, something few private charities would ever consider. Something about giving a man a fish and feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime. I'm not going to excuse the multitudes who profit from these poor decisions, but until those making those decisions see the light, nothing will ever change. Most who have escaped poverty understand this. Follow their lead rather than utopian double speak that promises that which can never be. If government forced "charity" through wealth redistribution worked, why has poverty grown? Could it be that it is another growth industry?
Excuse me, but... i believe that YOUR children were provided with correct sex education ( i know my child's private school gave them a serious explicit course and there were no inadvertent pregnancies in that senior class and haven't been for years)
and excuse me, but i bet you have gas money to ride three hours away to a planned parenthood ...but you also have a private doctor, i'm betting, who will "take care of any situations that arise"
and excuse me, but i'm sure if YOUR daughter got pregnant, you'd have the resources to take her to the next state, or even out of the country to obtain "appropriate care".
Please, don't justify the denial of education and services. You can bet your teenager is having as much more sex than poor teenagers......Your children, however, are special...
and that entitles them to ignore the rules you so blithely condemn others for "ignoring".
WAKE THE FUCK UP .... the cruelty of all of this is simply astounding.
Life is and always has been cruel, and what you suggest makes it worse. Of course you will not count the millions of babies murdered in the womb and you discount the fact that those who do not have accidental children do so because they KNOW BETTER. Sex education is silly. Today they are more interested in explaining how sex is fun and we should not be judgmental about who or how it occurs, and most explicit of instruction is how to condom a zucchini. If with everything we are exposed to everyday through media, we don't know where children come from, then we are far too stupid for any amount of education to help. But of course, more government control is what is needed along with more free stuff and access to free stuff and no, none, zero responsibility for their own actions. They say ignorance is no defense in the eyes of the law, and I say anywhere else as well. If parents, of all people, cannot take responsibility for raising their children with some modicum of common sense and knowledge of consequence, then what chance does society at large have, big gov or not?
Right, after blaming pensioners and Social/Medicare recipients, its now time to blame the poor. Hell, I thought they have been bailed out to the tune of $23 trillion since 2008??? That's was the poor right?
Like I said, you're an idiot.
I think you should go take Accounting 102
Here's a couple of youtube videos on how to use the dupont roach killer. Keep it away from your pets and children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kSzVucMtA0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhJ_xgHQ2Hg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlnemolv8QY
It's one of my best purchases that I made in the last 5 years.
These poor guys don't even realize there is a douchebag with a computer that can trade pennies back and forth in stocks all day and makes millions, all for nothing but acting like a total creep...
I'm still waiting for the poor person to post.
She's broke not poor.
Someone needs to ship this one to Afghanistan.
Then she can see what poor is,
I think her major problem is she suffers from lack of an imagination.
Hey, even if youre poor, you dont have to feel it. Poverty is more than anything being uneducated. And theres no excuse for that anymore with the wwweb.You can enrich your life in many ways, one of which is diet. Knowing nutrtion can give you a leg up on feeling better, eliminate the need for a dentist. And help the career. Even though money answereth all things, feeling under the rich is just ignorant. Get a life as in spiritual life, so your life is not so two dimensional. There IS a way out which is up. Both in the attitude and at the end of life.
truly an idiotic comment made by someone who clearly doesn't do his own grocery shopping or been in a grocery for years.
Are you at all aware of the stone cold fact that nutritious food is not filling food? Which is a damn important point when dealing with hungry children, and a 12 hour a day workday.
A tomato costs two bucks, and won't kill a kid's hunger pangs. A salad? Dream on.
Here's tip so you can wake up to reality....borrow a four year old for a week. Then take 42 bucks (which is a generous amount vis a vis today's SNAP program).....and you handle feeding that kid for one week on your "nutritious" diet.......
see how long you last before you crack and just fill the kid up with some cheap crappy food.
This holier than thou superior attitude is downright sickening.
Gee, I feel so cheated from being raised on non-filling foods. But you are right, the only thing that matters is feeling "satisfied". I wonder why there are so many broke ass fatties around now days?
And does it make you feel more "holier than thou" to take from others to give to someone you find to be more needy?
Salad? WTF? For a start, tomatos are maybe $3 per kilo.
Both nutritious and filling: Potatos, rice, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, broccolli, caulliflower, carrots, onions, pulses; beans, lentils. And none of this is expensive.
Even cheaper than tomatoes (You realise tomatoes have to be hothoused or shipped round the world when out of season?) thats for sure. Good god what do you think the poor in other countries... The truly poor live on? It isn't salad.
Dearest Poors,
STOP PROCREATING! Do you know how much fucking money it takes to raise one shitty little kid? Two? They can't afford transportation to their shitty job but they think they can afford and tend to three kids? Fucking idiots!
I have zero pity for any poor fuck who had kids. I also have zero pity for fat fucks. OMG I hate fat people so fucking much!
Thanks,
Civil Disobedience
hiya, hate to break in with a tad of reality...
you want them to have fewer kids?
HOW ABOUT SOME ACCESS TO BIRTH CONTROL?
HOW ABOUT STOPPING THE VICIOUS CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE MORNING AFTER PILL?
HOW ABOUT STOPPING THE CAMPAIGN OF TERROR AGAINST PLANNED PARENTHOOD?
HOW ABOUT STOPPING THE SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH FROM TEACHING NONSENSE SEX ED?
Your attitude is absolutely absurd when every effort to provide sex education, birth control and actual information about conception and contraception is being blown up by the far right.....and funded by corporate powers.
How about you guys stop teaching them to be sluts?
Or we could just stop feeding them. Just saying....
If you are living in a "weekly motel the first time I was pregnant", you may want hold off on that child.
Interesting article. Probably won't find sympathy here at ZH.
Too many curmudgeons who think they achieved because of merit.
I also felt there were holes in this story. It would be interesting to know if this is the whole story or sections?
Look at it this way if merit is not a guarantor of success being meritless isn't going to be much better.
Apparently I wrote too soon. I read the link..... WOW. Pardon me while I remove the hook from my mouth..... LOL.
http://killer-martinis.squarespace.com/my-wordpress/
Ahhhh.....the big "tell" is revealed in that blog......"when I joined my first political campaign....".
The biggest hole in the story is that she forgot to mention the "free" food stamps, housing, cell phones, medical care, cash assistance etc. People tell these stories to get more. There is no more to give. Gonna have to get out of the wagon and help pull.
That is the liberal thought isn't it? Those who perceive that they worked hard for success and saved for their security are the evil ones who should be punished or "harvested" much in the way of sin taxes, while movie stars, athletes and other performers, are simply lucky, and not guilty of the "greed" that possesses so many of us. We all know that those who actually work for a living are just morally defective while the salt of the earth starving artist, who as Pelosi made so clear, was deserving of subsidized healthcare at the expense or simple "workers" so foolish as to think they should earn their way. Sounds like a completely sustainable scenario to me.
over $50k donated so far. P. T. Barnum was right!
I grew up very poor, and I am still in poverty. I never had the chance to go to college. I work 7 days a week to support my family. I will never give up hope of one day becoming middle class.
My father always said it was not how much you made but how much you spent and on what, that made the difference. He worked hand shucking corn for 25 cents a day plus room and board starting out his employed life and had a seventh grade education. He didn't die rich but he owed no one. People can say what they want but in my mind wealth is defined by debt and debt defines freedom and liberty, and that is defined by each person's own metric. It is obvious that it varies greatly on this thread alone. It is hard to define yourself as free, however, when someone else is making that definition for you.
Obeez, you were just born at the wrong time and are being taken advantage of by the old. Had you been born in the 30-40-50's and had that work ethic, in 10-20 years you would be rich. But your fucked.
I was like the person in the article once but then I bought BitCoin.
I survived because I was not poor and fat. Poor and fat people vote for Obama and the Clintons. The need to be sent to re-education camps.
I’m not poor by comparison to the person who wrote the article, but, I believe this is the same reason I stopped clipping coupons to save $0.50 on a tube of toothpaste or a spool of dental floss. It just makes me feel like an even bigger loser asshole after I do it 1000 times, only to realize it doesn’t cover half the cost of the next crown for one of my teeth.
Yet you accumulate earning one minute at a time. How does that make you feel? We have evolved from a delayed gratification society to one of instant gratification. What would our GDP be if everyone actually saved for their purchases instead of buying now with the paycheck five years hence? Speaking for myself, spending saved dollars is much more difficult than those I have yet to earn.
Overcoming poverty frequently isn't a single-generation event. When my grandparents arrived here they were as poor as church mice. While they eventually were able to find work, earn a bit of money and raise a family, they never really has much of their own but survived. Their children, my parents, were able to leverage off of the work begun by their parents, and obtained educations. Back in those days you could attend some colleges if you scored high enough on college tests (there was no diversity nonsense to deal with. If you studied hard you could get ahead). They eventually entered the middle-class and raised us comfortably. My siblings and I in turn obtained our educations. good work and very nice lifestyles. The point is, family can be an integral part of improving our lives. From a political standpoint, this is why the left has done it's best to destroy the family as it leaves people with no one and no help. The only help they can find is the govt, which is exactly what the pols needs to keep you under control. Let's try to rebuild the family in America.
"Overcoming poverty frequently isn't a single-generation event"
It is easily when you have inflation, the fed and greedscam on your side.
She's quite a prolific writer. I have now found her on Reddit and Gawker. I wouldn't have enough time in the day to post on Reddit, Gawker, Twitter, Facebook, her blog and her gofundme site. Here's an uplifting story of her poverty that she posted on Reddit a year ago:
I manage a fast food restaurant. Business is unpredictable in the afternoons, so my rule is to cook fried product to order - when an order for chicken comes up, my cooks tell the cashier how long the cook time is, and the cashier explains to the customer that we're making their food fresh and how long it'll be. Most people either thank us or change their order if they're in such a rush that they can't spare three minutes.
I got called to the counter a couple days ago because a student (it's a college town) was throwing a temper tantrum about chicken strips. A throwing-things-and-stomping-her-feet tantrum. I explained that if we kept fried food around at all times we'd either be sending out really shitty food or would quickly go bankrupt from waste. At this point she'd been raging for longer than she would have waited to begin with, all the while telling me that I didn't understand my job and screaming that she'd have me fired. My crew loves these customers because I generally lose my temper eventually (ten minutes into a complaint, I get evil) and this one showed promise. She kept on for a while, and I started looking at the textbooks she'd put on the counter. All math and physics. I pulled out my phone, called her physics professor, explained the situation, and put him on speaker so that he could explain the science of why it takes time to heat something from frozen to 165F. Then I offered to call an English professor who could explain the words "leave" and "unwelcome." She left fairly quickly after that.
Lesson: Everyone knows everyone else in a small town, and the laws of physics don't change just because it'd suit you better.
EDIT TO CLARIFY: didn't expect the amount of response! I am not a science person, but dated the science prof and know most of the people who teach in the department. It's not a huge school.
I like this girl.
I come from poor people. Somehow - (by the grace of God???) not sure how - I managed to stop being poor.
As a result I quit criticising poor people long ago. Every circumstance is different. Every person is different. Sometimes shit just happens. Esspecially nowadays.
Being poor sucks and it is a hell of a lot easier to become poor when you are wealthy than it is to become wealthy or middle class when you are poor. Readers on ZH should remember this because if you think it cannot happen to you then I only have one word for you - Hubris.
In short - if you are not poor count your blessings...
Jreb.
Exactly Jreb. I am going to write an article explaining how if this 'poor' person were poor during the 1970's how in 20 years they would be one of the upper middle class. Easily.
Go for it. I'm always interested in how boomers are fucking over the young. As one and as an employer for thirty years I will admit it is tough out there, for just about everyone. I do still think there is opportunity for the young. For one they are on the leading edge of technology that most boomers will never catch up with. Another is that so many young have been neutralized by the leftist's "its evil to compete" mentality, that those who choose to work at it have a lot less competition than us old dogs had. This is all mute of course if big gov steps on anyone who actually tries to get ahead, which is a real possibility.
You're an idiot. Walk over to the mirror and take a good, long look. See that person staring back at you? He and many like him are so economically illiterate, they help sow the seeds of annihilation for the middle class.
Oh, and it has absolutely nothing to do with Social Security, Medicare or $12,000 a year pensions for librarians.
Please stop fucking things up for the rest of us.
I can tell you. You stopped being "poor" by working hard and living within your means. It's a very simple solution to poverty for any able-bodied, able-minded individual.
What the poor don't have is a sense of responsibility. They trap themselves in the menality that the government is supposed to take care of them. That they are OWED something just for being poor.
In Entitlement America, The Head Of A Household Of Four Making Minimum Wage Has More Disposable Income Than A Family Making $60,000 A Yearhttp://www.zerohedge.com/article/entitlement-america-head-household-making-minimum-wage-has-more-disposable-income-family-mak
KW,
This is partly true - I do work hard and lately am trying to work smarter.
But I have to tell you that part of what I consider to be my "middle class" success is due to some luck and some small blessings bestowed on me by others.
I have never looked a gift horse in the mouth or taken it for granted. Success is due in part to several factors:
-Desire & Drive
-A little luck
-Cooperation and help from others
It is my experience that if all you have is help and no desire you will fail. Conversely if all you have is desire and drive but no help then it is very difficult to change your cicumstance.
Besides - being successful finacially is largely a mindset. There are people on ZH with more dollars and cents than me. There are people with less. I am not sure if success can be measured simply in terms of earning potential. On the other hand I must admit that wondering whether or not I will eat next week is not all that compelling a thought. Success is such perspective is it not?
Speaking of perspective - I generally live my life through the idea that we are simply here to learn (from the good and the bad) and how we choose to act upon these lessons generally determines what our lives will look like.
The woman who wrote this article may be poor financially but she is rich in other ways she may not recognize yet. Whether her life takes a better turn finacially or not is part her choice and part circumstance. Whether she recognizes it or not she is on a path to something better than what she knew, and was, the day before. It will be interesting to see how her story evolves and to see who she becomes.
As I get older it seems to me there are several different definitions of success - more than one definition of poor and wealthy.
As an example have you ever noticed that some of the wealthiest people on TV have the least amount of class? i wonder if we would consider them successful here on ZH?
Food for thought.
Don't worry honey, soon frozen burritos will be a luxury for most Americans.
"Cooking attracts roaches. Nobody realizes that. "
Uh NO! Cooking food does NOT cause roach problems.
Not cleaning up after cooking causes roaches. Dirty dishes left in the sink causes roaches. Not taking out the garbage everyday causes roaches. Not washing the counter, stovetop or microwave causes roaches. Eating in bed causes roaches. Not cleaning crumbs off the floor causes roaches.
You can cook all you want and if you use good hygeine you won't have roaches.
If you are poor, there is a likelihood that you are living in an apartment or some other type of multi family housing. You can live in an apartment and never bring any food in and still have a massive roach infestation problem that is unsolveable because you have no control over your neighbors living habits.
btw, none of that shit you mentioned, "causes" roaches.
'
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If you've got roaches, you've got roaches.
Food doesn't attract roaches. Roaches just come. They stay if you've got food left out. They come in, if you've got holes and accesses.
You've got food, don't you?
Do you put your flour, potatoes, or dry goods in special sealed containers?
Nothing 'causes' roaches. Roaches are roaches.
My landlady told me that keeping my grocery bags loose in a bunch under the kitchen sink, instead of neatly jammed into one, will cause rats and mice.
She's bat-shit crazy. How do the rats and mice get in there in the first place to decide if I keep my bags in one bag or a big pile?
I had roaches once, another place that I moved into, a long time ago. I sealed everything @#$%ing crack and hole in the place and then sprayed and chalked. No more roaches. I left the dishes in the sink, and didn't take out the garbage everyday. Roaches never came back.
•?•
V-V
Water leaks from old plumbing valves are the usual suspects for "massive" roach infestations. Roof leaks and plumbing leaks are costly repairs that landlords don't have to worry about as long as the rent is being paid.
You can have roaches crawling all over everything without a crumb of food. All roaches really need for a poplulation explosion is a small water leak.
Don't breed em, if you can't feed em!
You(good men) will find a way to take care of your(their) children. If you use that as an excuse you will never have children.
What a scam.
http://www.gofundme.com/59yrak
I got a partial scholarship to Cranbrook....
Total Estimated Costs** $47,660hmm nice post explaining the non free market crony capital system.. Don't worry 70% of the student loan bubble is for business majors saying profits are growth will fix the problem. Stock buybacks are not a failure, printed bank reserves are investments.. Gosh you mean you can't eat a double Dutch tax sandwich, or Irish intellectual property defended in US courts, Swiss Accounts and Cayman corporate addresses? Really. Homeland security, education and Police are hiring although the military industrial complex has bankrupted us... Seems the FICO sore rackets are close to bubble popping reality.. Totally expected by economic planning by pseudo science economist. You know on the one hand this, on the other hand that... Ambidextrous jerk offs.... Usury for ever.... You forgot the payday loans or double digit credit....
Lack of money is a symptom of poverty, not its cause.
The lady says she's going to school. That belies her rhetoric about how she believes she will always be poor. The only excuse I'll ever offer up in public for not being stinkng rich right now is because for the first 18 years of my life instead of basking in the sun on a rock like a little lizard should I was beat down like a dog by my wicked step father. It took another 20 years for me put something together and not just stop squandering my money but my whole life. I can't attest to every aspect of her life because I have never been encumbered with family or children. She doesn't fit the template of the average poor person I encounter. Poor people spend money that they don't have on cigarettes booze and drugs. I lived in a building that had roaches. One of my neighbors told me to use pine sol to get rid of them. I scrubbed the walls cupboards and floors with the stuff. They hate it. It worked. They also like warm places. Turn the heat down. Put on a sweater. Let them go bug the neighbors who have the heat turned all the way up. Don't eat on the carpet. Eat in a designated area that's easy to clean. If I had to combat roaches again I would try to involve my neighbors. Maybe use some boric acid this time around.
Take one semester off school. Apply the free time to sitting down and planning you decisions.
Spend less time writing political diatribes that will decide nothing.
I think, judging by the responses, that many people MISSED her point entirely. Instead of finding fault with her, how about understanding that she freely acknowledges an irrational pattern of behavior, that is is all based in EMOTION. The emotional experience of being beat down until you don't bother to get up, of being depressed, feeling every action is futile...these are things that must be EXPERIENCED, and until another has direct personal experience of those emotions, that person cannot fully understand the power of that state of mind.
She FEELS all actions are futile, she FEELS worthless, she NEEDS some feeling of joy, of comfort, of self worth. She operates out of an emotional nexus based on life experiences. This nexus results in a bad decision making calculus that is self-reinforcing. The more she operates on it, the more she is stuck in it.
Finding fault with her means NOTHING. Dismantling her decision making based on her emotio-experiential nexus would be a good start, but the best thing is to move her and hers OUT of the place she is in. A full change of environment will have the most liklihood of stimulating emotional correction and opening new opportunities for her.
Poverty is a hollow spirit, a dearth of soul.
I certainly know what it's like to go from riches to rags in a very short time, even though I have never sired any children in or out of wedlock, don't smoke or use any illegal drugs, and the beer I drink is the cheapest that's still barely fit for human consumption. I'm not a big eater, and at 5'10" and 170 pounds I'm not really overweight.
My father went into a nursing home just over five years ago. For five years and change now he has been bed-ridden and mindless. Because the family had some money it was 100 percent private pay, if anyone can imagine what that means. In four years the estate or "family fortune" or whatever you'd call it was wiped out. They drained us dry, bled us white. "Generational" wealth -- gone. Stripped bare.
I still had some meager savings I could call my own. I could see them dwindling fast, so starting in October of 2010 I invested much of what I had in silver -- physical silver. Three (3) green moster boxes of American Silver Eagles, plus 60 loose ASEs of random years, plus another 48.08 troy ounces of assorted ninety percent silver. I guess we all know what happened to silver since then.
Last December I sold my car, or rather just gave it back to the dealership for what I still owed on it. By the first of the year my cash reserves had run out anyway. I had to start selling off my personal belongings (guns, various collections, antiques, etc.) to raise money to live. I wouldn't touch my silver at that stage.
By mid-April I had already sold everything else that anyone would buy, mostly for tiny fractions of what it was worth. (I had one collection worth from $1,500 to $1,800. I got $150 for it. I had a knife valued at $120. I got $30 for it. These were typical.)
By mid-April there was nothing else left to sell but my silver. Guess where the market price of silver went in mid-April. Anyone remember? On April 19 this year I sold all my ninety-percent silver. Then, as the price of silver kept sinking lower and lower throughout the year, I was forced to sell my ASEs, first 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 at a time. Then a whole tube at a time. Then multiple tubes at a time, sometimes 4 or 5 tubes at a time. Each time for fewer dollars per coin.
I was hoping to save my childhood home, and was also planning to buy some land. Neither of those things are going to happen now.
I've lived in this apartment for a bit over 14 years now. For the first ten years I never saw a roach here. Then, just over four years ago, a family of illegal aliens moved into the apartment next to mine. Within a week I was seeing occasional roaches. Within two weeks, dozens of them.
Within three weeks, my apartment, and indeed the whole building, was overrun by roaches. Hundreds of thousands of them, at least. I'd never seen anything like it outside of a horror movie. If you mentally picture the swarming beetle hordes in those Mummy movies you won't be far off.
I was personally killing from 50 to 100 of them per day. They had no fear of man. They'd crawl up my leg as I sat at this keyboard. They'd run across my face as I lay in bed.
The plague-like infestation finally rendered my kitchen unusable as a kitchen. I had to simply throw out my nearly-new toaster oven. I had to throw out my coffee maker too. There was no point in replacing either. My microwave oven was also rendered unusable, except for the digital clock.
So now I can't even heat anything up. Everything has to be ready to eat, and I eat everything cold, right out of the can or whatever packaging it's in. If I want a cup of coffee I have to go out for it. If I want anything hot I have to go out for it.
I could go on listing my age-related health issues and other misfortunes, but who'd be interested? I'm sure most who have even read this far have already decided I deserve it all.
I can particularly relate to the author of the article's sentiments about all those who told her smugly that her problem was a lack of a positive, peppy, can-do attitude, and that she should just put on a happy face. I probably disagree with her about the efficacy (or even advisability) of "treatment" for "depression," though.
I'm very skeptical about psychiatry, and do not consider unhappiness or grief or despair a medical condition. When people ask if I am depressed, I tell them, "No, I am just a miserable S.O.B. That's not a disease. They don't have a pill to cure that." In fact, I have long considered myself at war with what I now call the Therapeutic State.
Another thing she's dead right about is that you can be pretty well educated and literate and articulate, and it basically counts for nothing in today's part-time-minimum wage marketplace. No employer within a hundred miles of where I dwell cares at all about anyone's advanced degrees or academic credentials. They want you just smart enough to follow simple directions and to operate a cash register.
There's always some way to blame someone for whatever's wrong with his or her life -- some way to say, "Well, if they'd done this or that different 15 or 25 or 35 years ago, if they hadn't zigged when they should have zagged that time in 1979 or 1987, they'd be smelling like a rose and lighting their cigars with $100 bills now."
But she's dead right that "success is a crapshoot." It is all random, chance. The following almost perfectly expresses my own view about wealth and other forms of good fortune, or bad fortune:
"We pause today to reflect upon death and upon life, to think of the vagaries of human existence that propel us from the depths to the heights and back again, that thrust us into prominence or obscurity, grant us fame or infamy, that give us riches and power or leave us impoverished, wounded, and desperate.
So much of what comes to us is beyond our control. Wealth, physical beauty, strength, intelligence, or their opposites are so seldom ours to choose that even those who seem in control of their destinies are often the puppets of forces well beyond their ken. Seldom do any of us--wealthy or poor, powerful or insignificant--even realize what propels us or impedes us."
And there was some passage in the Old Testament that I'd have to go look up. Ah, here:
"Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all." -- Ecclesiastes 9:11
Well, that's all I have to say now.
Learn to sell on EBay.
Sell what, now?
Good post. It is hard to know how to encourage people anymore. Hard to offer tough love. Things that we know have worked in a time that is gone.
Maybe if you would spend less time writing stupid shit like this long ass "woe is me" post--which did nothing more than confirm your stupidity, BTW--then you would have time to come up with a plan on how to get out of that fucked up situation. I don't feel sorry for you in the least. You are a FUCKING IDIOT to sell off all that silver. You are in the situation you are in because of YOUR decisions. It has nothing to do with luck, idiot.
The difference between poor people and rich people who started poor is the number of failed businesses and bankruptcies they have in their history. Poor people have 0 or 1 failures. On average the self made American success has failed 2-3 times before they made it stick. Poor people quit, rich people learn the expensive lesson they just paid for and keep trying. Its not the dog in the fight, its the fight in the dog.
I do charity. I invest in the things I want to see more of, to induce the world I want to live in. I choose my targets carefully. With the exception of a few really damaged people I know, or people I've worked with who got rolled by major bad luck, I don't give cash to anyone, unless I am funding a plan I bought into or developed. The charity industrial complex is rife with scams, and with the exception of orphans, you can't take responsibility for anyone for any length of time without harming them.
This is the week to be grateful for what you got. If you can't figure out how fucking lucky you are, go volunteer at the battered women's shelter in your area. Don't gift and run, spend a few hours looking at the consequences of really bad luck. In my area a few years ago the homeless shelter took state funds to take mental patients off the street, so at least around here this is a total scam. Otherwise go see what these people are doing for thanksgiving.
I understand why people would send this lady money: do unto others as you would like to be done by. Its nice to see people rise to the occasion. She put her name on it, so we'll find out if she makes good. Meanwhile the government is robbing us much more to give their friends and minions a whole lot more than she got from willing volunteers who gifted freely. We don't.
Keep trying.
I give to orgs that fight the bastards. Some to Christian orgs, but they don't fight anymore. GO TEA!
SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS
Inmate of open-air prison run by lunatics and populated almost entirely by zombies is desperately seeking a pen-pal ... because God gave Eve to Adam, and Aldous Huxley gave someone to Winston Smith.
For mutual support in these trying times, am seeking fellow non-zombie intelligent, open-minded, and well-informed inmate for discussing topics of mutual interest, such as:
Both actual and notional nuclear accidents, and nuclear technology of all sorts;
Historical Revisionism of WW1 and WW2 as a battle of truth-telling historians versus the well-funded OSS/CIA myth-telling “historians” per Harry Elmer Barnes, 1889–1968;
John Kenneth Galbraith as an exceptionally honest economist, JFK's ambassador to India;
Bankers v. The People going way back to Andrew Jackson;
contemporary Capitalist Crisis as predicted by Karl Marx;
1984, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of Oz as works of history;
Newspeak, shunning, straw man, murder, etc. as effective social controls;
zerohedge.com as island of sanity, albeit sorely lacking collegiality; and
identifiable weaknesses in the prison system which might allow its escape.
SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS
Damn. This just proves that there's a huge difference between "poor" and "broke"...
"Poor" is a state of mind.
"Broke" is a state of finances.
I'm going through some tough times, and I'm ostenisbly "broke"; this too shall pass. The author of this article has condemned herself to being "poor"; the only way out is death.
Is anyone going to mention the chick now has $100K in donations and she's not even poor by anyone's standards includnig her own?
Is anyone going to mention the chick now has $100K in donations and she's not even poor by anyone's standards includnig her own?