re: #276 PT Barnum

Mandy,
What are the limits of personal responsibility? When does personal responsibility give way to circumstance?

I think we should all take care of ourselves, but i also believe we should all have the opportunity to take care of ourselves. So often the cries of personal responsibility come from those who have never been in the situation where they couldn’t afford to pay for even the most basic of things.

If I am only able to find a minimum wage job that barely pays my basic expenses, how am I supposed to better myself? How am I supposed to have opportunities to improve my lot? I want to take responsibility, but how am I going to without opportunity to improve my capacity to do so?

“But it should be voluntary, not coerced through taxes” However, do you think voluntary contributions would even be close to what is needed, or even close to what is currently collected and distributed through taxes? I doubt it very much.

PT:
I’ve been there. I’ve had a job where I could barely pay expenses. Here’s how I created the opportunity to improve my lot: I figured out how to enroll in the university and how to pay for it, and then I did those things. I maintained a full-time course schedule and worked 30 hours a week, and lived in a really shitty little apartment right next to the railroad tracks and did without extras for a couple of years. I was willing to do those things in order to create my own opportunity.

In the city where I live, there are 2 major universities, an excellent community college, and several vocational training schools. All open to enrollment.