re: Why cant poor people get their shite together?

What’s your definition of poor? Are they just working the system? Horrible at money management even though they make good money?

quote:

---

Paradoxically upward mobility is a factor. The smart and ambitious get the hell out, leaving no one to be a role model.

---

I wonder if there is a specific term for this b/c it's so true. I was thinking about this pretty hard watching videos about Haiti this afternoon. I just can't imagine how you can hope to change that kind of society because the non-advancement mindset is so ingrained, how could anyone rise above it if that's all anyone knows?

You'd literally have to start the entire population over and mind them over decades just to get a generation who may be competent to have progeny that could stand a chance. As society advances, that gap widens. The gap is spreading exponentially these days. It's really depressing to think about.

What percentage of Americans change their socio-economic class for the better in the United States?

Truth, it’s so easy to say, “I would be the one that made all of the right decisions despite XYZ”, but in reality we are all products of our environments to a very large extent.

Behavior over brains...

Live on 90% of income
Invest the 10% (time value of $)
Control expenses
Own your stuff (don't rent/lease) - somethin' bout ownership
Build a retirement nest egg for non working years
Grow your skills to grow your income


If life's circumstances allow...like having:
1. Good parent(s)
2. Stable life / home
3. No abuse in your family (any / all flavors)
4. Strong education foundation at early age
5. People who teach you how to live a good life
6. Moral compass

...and many more!

Debate the cause/effect of poor outcomes if you will but I believe these to be trueth

Dad worked at Exxon refinery. Mom didn’t work most of my childhood.

One of those things you can’t say is that most poor people are poor because they’re dumb and make bad decisions.

The democratic agenda perpetuates illegitimacy and poverty to make the disenfranchised feel like one party is working “FOR” them, meanwhile, they’re collecting and securing votes each term in all levels of government

quote:

---

Dad worked at Exxon refinery. Mom didn’t work most of my childhood

---

Your upbringing sounds similar to mine, only my dad bounced around plants as a contract welder, when he wasn't on a barstool. I was fortunate enough to have a grandmother (and a love of LSU sports) which instilled in me at a very young age that I WOULD go to LSU.

Even with that understanding, it took some luck (a loan officer at LNB who took pity on me) for me to be able to wade through the paperwork necessary to obtain work study, a pell grant, and the student loans to make it on to campus. I proceeded to party that shite away and lose it all. Weeks before dropping out, I happened to walk into a national guard office, and on a whim, signed up for 8 years and they paid my last three years at school for me to become the first on either side of my family to graduate college in 1990. And that was with a laughable 2.3 GPA.

After all of that, it took suffering thru a few straight commission entry level sales jobs, a few more minor breaks, and lying on my resume to get a job decent enough to get on a path out of a lower economic class. And even then, I still had lapses trying to break the cycle of doing some of the same knuckleheaded shite that I saw everyday for the first 20 years of my life.

My point is, continuing the cycle of being a working poor dumbass would've been a lot easier than the one I took which eventually lead me to (not to brag but frick it) being a dumbass with a financially secure lifestyle.