RE: For Rich Fetuses Only, Though
November 5, 2017 at 11:06 am
(This post was last modified: November 5, 2017 at 11:21 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Most of this isn;t aimed directly at a response to you Camus, bear with me. 
/rantmode engaged.
Whether we offer anecdotes that have always served the end of perpetuating misapprehensions of poverty in spite of a literal mountain of data to the contrary is definitely under our control. That we don't intend for them to be so is irrelevant. In effect, we hand Those People™ the weapon and then feel appalled at what they do with it. There's the tendency to suspect that poverty is indicative of some deficiency in a person...even in those of us who know better. That their deficiency explains their poverty, rather than their poverty explaining said deficiency.
We wonder, for example, why the hungry would buy lobster with their food stamps. As though eating water cockroach should be solely reserved for the rich. Why don't they subsist on the gruel we mandated and half-provide..we ask ourselves. It seems like a baffling decision until we realize that those people are going to be hungry regardless of what they eat today...and the only difference between choosing the cornmeal and the lobster is that in the case of the latter, at least they had lobster last night. A taste of the life that they have correctly realized will be beyond them..in all likelihood, no matter how good their decisions are.
The case of alcohol (and any other number of drugs) runs along the same lines. They're already broke before they get paid..and before they spend a dime. They will be broke whether they pay all their bills or not - there is no legitimate or practical expectation that they'll be able to save their money. They couldn't afford a car (or repairs for a car) for the price of a bottle of gin..but at least with the gin they get to self medicate. They're as broke as they were yesterday and and broke as they will be tomorrow. Their car was fucked up yesterday and will be tomorrow, They're bills were unpaid yesterday and will be tomorrow. The only difference from their perspective...is that they don't have to think about it for an hour or two.
The suggestion is always that the poor should suffer suffer suffer, until they suffer no more - not always in the normative sense, but at least in the sense that this is the way to succeed. This suggestion presents itself even in your nuanced appraisal of your family members. It's strange that this doesn't seem to work regardless of whether or not they suffer suffer suffer, most of them will die where they began or only moderately improved in station (and still poor). It's been going on for so long that we've invented whole genres like the nobility of poverty (or suffering)...and that's in addition to the religions of the world that peddle release from poverty through death and elevation.
Bringing it back round into the meandering circles I love so much..perhaps it;s time we accept..and I mean thoroughly and fundamentally accept, that these problems we see in people aren't the cause of their poverty...people without those problems are still poor..but..rather, that these problems are effects of their poverty. That the problem doesn't lie with the people who are poor...but with the way we've organized our society so that it foists poverty upon people, and the ease with which we can comfortable shuffle that away as "bad choices" is and has always been one of the main avenues of perpetuating both poverty, and the myth of poverty.....as well as the myth of our relative success.
Now, I've never been poor..at least not in the way that the truly poor are poor..but I've had a taste. I've had a car repo'd..I've missed my rent, I've been on food stamps with two jobs and four kids going hungry. I've skipped meals. I didn't decide my way into that, and I didn't decide my way out. I'd love to say that I worked my way out, but that would be a lie. I moved halfway across the country, four times in two years..chasing opportunity. verywhere I went I met people poorer and harder working than myself. I stayed poor. I stayed poor until the market went back up. For most, the market never goes back up, they don't have anything to sell..like I did. The wife helped out alot with handling that. She -was- born poor. Her family had been lifelong renters. Her dad a hard ass worker...both parents college educated. They'll die in an RV. She knew about being poor, lol. Still, it stressed and tested us both and our relationship.
That little taste, just a couple of years that seemed like one long shitty day left an impression. I'm more careful about what I say and think about poorer people as a result of it. It's difficult for me to contain my ire when people callously and thoughtlessly dismiss poverty, even a portion of poverty, along counterfactual lines that do nothing other than serve as the fundamental justification for societal organization that churns out poverty just as surely as it churns out green left handed widgets. We have alot of problems that we legitimately can't solve. Poverty isn't one of them. We choose not to. We choose to blame the poor for their condition. That's the nature of choice and poverty.
/rant
Sooooooo.....whose got dick jokes?
/rantmode engaged.
Whether we offer anecdotes that have always served the end of perpetuating misapprehensions of poverty in spite of a literal mountain of data to the contrary is definitely under our control. That we don't intend for them to be so is irrelevant. In effect, we hand Those People™ the weapon and then feel appalled at what they do with it. There's the tendency to suspect that poverty is indicative of some deficiency in a person...even in those of us who know better. That their deficiency explains their poverty, rather than their poverty explaining said deficiency.
We wonder, for example, why the hungry would buy lobster with their food stamps. As though eating water cockroach should be solely reserved for the rich. Why don't they subsist on the gruel we mandated and half-provide..we ask ourselves. It seems like a baffling decision until we realize that those people are going to be hungry regardless of what they eat today...and the only difference between choosing the cornmeal and the lobster is that in the case of the latter, at least they had lobster last night. A taste of the life that they have correctly realized will be beyond them..in all likelihood, no matter how good their decisions are.
The case of alcohol (and any other number of drugs) runs along the same lines. They're already broke before they get paid..and before they spend a dime. They will be broke whether they pay all their bills or not - there is no legitimate or practical expectation that they'll be able to save their money. They couldn't afford a car (or repairs for a car) for the price of a bottle of gin..but at least with the gin they get to self medicate. They're as broke as they were yesterday and and broke as they will be tomorrow. Their car was fucked up yesterday and will be tomorrow, They're bills were unpaid yesterday and will be tomorrow. The only difference from their perspective...is that they don't have to think about it for an hour or two.
The suggestion is always that the poor should suffer suffer suffer, until they suffer no more - not always in the normative sense, but at least in the sense that this is the way to succeed. This suggestion presents itself even in your nuanced appraisal of your family members. It's strange that this doesn't seem to work regardless of whether or not they suffer suffer suffer, most of them will die where they began or only moderately improved in station (and still poor). It's been going on for so long that we've invented whole genres like the nobility of poverty (or suffering)...and that's in addition to the religions of the world that peddle release from poverty through death and elevation.
Bringing it back round into the meandering circles I love so much..perhaps it;s time we accept..and I mean thoroughly and fundamentally accept, that these problems we see in people aren't the cause of their poverty...people without those problems are still poor..but..rather, that these problems are effects of their poverty. That the problem doesn't lie with the people who are poor...but with the way we've organized our society so that it foists poverty upon people, and the ease with which we can comfortable shuffle that away as "bad choices" is and has always been one of the main avenues of perpetuating both poverty, and the myth of poverty.....as well as the myth of our relative success.
Now, I've never been poor..at least not in the way that the truly poor are poor..but I've had a taste. I've had a car repo'd..I've missed my rent, I've been on food stamps with two jobs and four kids going hungry. I've skipped meals. I didn't decide my way into that, and I didn't decide my way out. I'd love to say that I worked my way out, but that would be a lie. I moved halfway across the country, four times in two years..chasing opportunity. verywhere I went I met people poorer and harder working than myself. I stayed poor. I stayed poor until the market went back up. For most, the market never goes back up, they don't have anything to sell..like I did. The wife helped out alot with handling that. She -was- born poor. Her family had been lifelong renters. Her dad a hard ass worker...both parents college educated. They'll die in an RV. She knew about being poor, lol. Still, it stressed and tested us both and our relationship.
That little taste, just a couple of years that seemed like one long shitty day left an impression. I'm more careful about what I say and think about poorer people as a result of it. It's difficult for me to contain my ire when people callously and thoughtlessly dismiss poverty, even a portion of poverty, along counterfactual lines that do nothing other than serve as the fundamental justification for societal organization that churns out poverty just as surely as it churns out green left handed widgets. We have alot of problems that we legitimately can't solve. Poverty isn't one of them. We choose not to. We choose to blame the poor for their condition. That's the nature of choice and poverty.
/rant
Sooooooo.....whose got dick jokes?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
