Quote:
Originally Posted by TheSquealer
What difference does their legal status or benefits with respect to being able to step out the front door with shitty clothes, unshowered, not speaking the language and then being able to make 500+ a week cash have to do with anything?
My point is simply that one single question never gets answered...
"At what point does any responsibility at all get put on the individual". All i hear are sad stories about how some other external thing is to blame and that thing needs to be attacked. Just like you said "trying to get another good job that pays well, with benefits" - Wow. How about starting at "get a job, save money" and then move to "look for better job WHILE working"?
You're a smart guy. How about this. How about you go to Home Depot and conduct an informal survey - just as I ask every time I hire laborers... "do you find work every day" "how many of you guys here find work every day" "how often are you offered permanent jobs" etc etc etc.
--- just keep your car doors locked as they'll try to rush your car and pile in. (but then again, I guess really wanting it pays off)
I have a background in construction, its not like i'm just making this up. I think the results will be wildly disappointing for anyone who thinks rich people should be punished to lift poor people up. In fact, those fuckers demand more and more money now. Years back, they used to be 8.00 an hour for skilled workers, now they all want 15-20/hr where I am and the good ones find steady work very quickly.
I feel like I woke up one day and suddenly everyone feels they are entitled to everything. Why do people have it in their heads that they aren't supposed to struggle? That employment is not guaranteed? That things aren't just going to be given to them. How many of the people bitching about "rich people" are actively planning for their future, saving money, getting educated and improving their earning ability? How many are just sitting around bitching while they spend their money on retarded crap and then complaining about rich people because they are broke?
20+ years now of telling every kid they are special and passing out participation trophies created a generation of young adults who can't understand why the world isn't treating them like they're special. The problems in the US are 95% cultural, not economic. Why are we never talking about lazy, useless, self entitled people?... and just trying to paint a picture of 10,000,000 Ward Cleaver types who are doing the best that circumstances will allow but some big evil corporation is oppressing them?
I read a statistic that Houston has more check cashing places than Subway restaurants. Why aren't we talking about the need to address retarded people with zero responsibility, who accept zero personal accountability and who make nothing but hugely irresponsible and stupid decisions, all day, every day at the direct cost of everyone else?
Why aren't we talking about people making minimum wage having 1-2-3 kids? Why is the fucking President telling everyone that's ok? Huh? Why are you having kids when you can't afford to have kids? Why is he addressing the nation telling people it takes "courage" to stick around and raise a child? Last I checked "raise your child and be a parent" fell squarely under the "no shit" category. I guess thats clearly changed. Why was he telling the nation that everyone should be able to afford a great pre-school for their multiple kids even though they are making minimum wage? I never went to fucking pre-school. I mean, we're supposed to go to pre-school? Huh? That should be a right that I as a tax payer need to pay for?
The absolute last problem this country has is "rich people". Los Angeles has billboards that say "do the impossible, graduate high school". We've lowered standards so far now for what we expect of people as a society that people are confused that anything is expected of them at all. We are creating a nation of underachievers and at the same time, telling them its the achievers who are responsible for all their problems. That's pure insanity.
The point that hurts every one to think about. NO ONE that is driven, that works extremely hard, that is bright and good at what they do are unemployed for any real amount of time. It's largely "everyone else" that is. I don't know ANY great people that are unemployed. Maybe people need to examine that?
So again, my question is always "where does any of this fall on the individual" - that's the one thing that never gets addressed.
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In the end it mostly falls on the individual. A person makes choices in their lives and those choices can turn out good or bad. If you choose to not get an education or learn a trade of some sort and you just get a basic job right out of high school you have to expect that the odds of you eventually landing a higher paying job are not all that great unless you eventually learn some sort of skill. The days of standing on an assembly line doing a mindless job and earning a good wage are quickly vanishing. There are a lot of people who made a good wage at their job then lost that job and are now finding that industry is shrinking and those jobs simply no longer exist. They then have to make the choice to either learn to do something new or accept the fact that they are likely going to have to get a lower paying job and hope to work their way up the ladder again.
My post was not about hating on rich people. I don't hate rich people. Are some of the scumbags who will do things that are bad for the country while fucking many innocent people over just to earn a dollar? Sure. But that doesn't mean they all are. The only rich people who really bother me are those like Paris Hilton who did nothing but be lucky enough to fall out of the correct vagina and into a pile of cash and they have a sense of entitlement because of it.
My post was basically saying that I feel you were over simplifying the situation. If everyone who needed a job drove down and stood in front of Home Depot there would thousands of people out there and only a small number of them would get jobs. Doing that works for those with the skills/ability to do those jobs. I doubt guys with no ability that are just doing general labor are regularly getting hired for $15 per hour in front of Home Depot. Even if they often do get work, most people are simply not wired this way. Most people like working for others. They like the security and stability of knowing that if they go into the office/job for 40 hours each week they get a paycheck each week and they can count on it. If you are standing in front of Home Depot hoping to pick up work you go in each day not sure if you will work today or not. I bring up the illegal status because I would venture to guess that if these guys were legal they would be working hard to get a regular, steady job with a company or they might be trying to run their own company. One of the reasons they are out there is because those other options are likely not open to them.
When you mention the lowering of standards in schools that one really hit home for me. My nephew (who is, sadly, a mope) graduated high school yet is basically illiterate. He flunked all but 1 class his 8th grade year and was still sent on to high school. After his first two years he had failed half his classes. His junior year he was expelled. They let him finish off 5 or 6 packets of homework on his own and once he did those they let him graduate. His education level is so bad he recently took the ASVAB test that you take when you want to join the military. He did so poorly on it they wouldn't even take him as a grunt and the recruiter thought he was purposely messing with him. He went to a local community college to look into getting an Associates Degree in some field. They had him take a placement test and told him he would likely need 2-3 years of basic core classes just to get to the starting level of the Associates classes. It is sad and his future is bleak. There is a lot of blame to places here, most of which falls on his mom and grandma, but it is also sad that the school system is such that someone like this actually has a diploma. Add in during the last campaign I remember Rick Santorum actually mocking people with college degrees. He was speaking to a crowd and called those with college degrees elitist and came off like getting an education was no big deal. Meanwhile all of his kids are in college and he and his wife both went to college. We don't need leaders of this country telling people education doesn't matter.
Anyway, I'm rambling on here. In the end, I was basically trying to say that I thought your assessment of how easy it is to get a job was a little over simplified, but I do agree with you that people need to take responsibility for themselves and those who do that and work hard are normally the ones who get the jobs and find success.