re: #146 Obdicut

re: #147 zeir

Thanks to both of you. My spouse has worked far harder than she should have had to in trying to make up for my lost income (which was considerable in aviation while jobs lasted, but also sporadic) and she is attending college also while working full time.

We would not have made it without her.

The more I have thought about it, the more I realize that the “pull yourself up your bootstraps” stories we are fed are mostly a sort of American myth. You succeed because youn have other people who invest a great deal of time, resources and effort in helping you. Hopefully, you pass that on later. We rightfully point out the literal one in a million cases of people who pull themselves out of poverty and end up at Harvard Law School or some such, but even then, they had help…and far more poor people would join them if the effort was made. Instead, I actually read astonishing diatribes at blogs like Megan McCardels when ‘glibitarians’ blithely assert that poor people want to be that way and made poor choices…

So people who were born on third base, so to speak, made good choices? They chose to have parents who were alumni at an Ivy League school?

Poor families tend to remain poor. Rich families tend to remain rich, and that is utterly irrespective of the moral choices, value of the contributions or even the native intelligence of the individuals. Class distinction is very real and it is pervasive.

Throwing money at this does not really work. We have seen that, and it has become a bitter wedge issue in the interminiable culture wars. What is needed is actual human involvment. You don’t have to take a kid into your home like in The Blind Side, but we all can and should donate time or talent to educational programs in the community. Education is the way out of the poverty trap. I will never be able to earn anything like what I made as an aircraft mechanic again unless I have that Bachelor’s of Science degree on my wall. I intend to follow that up with a Master’s and a Ph.D. Living on disability income, well, sucks.

I am only able to go to school because I have disability, though. if I can work again, even in a limited fashion, then I will be repaying that investment. I will also be doing my part to help eduate other people who were sick or injured, unemployed, discouraged and embittered the way I was. It is possible to still have self respect and accomplish worthwhile things. We find that out when somebody stops long enough to offer a hand up.

Not a hand out.