Indie This smacks to me of just more of your evasion tactics - because you are unwilling or unable to address the issues been raised, I hope not. Anyway if you had actually read my post you would have picked up on four areas that have been specifically mentioned. Education, environment, social connectivity and economic class. They were there right out in the open someone would have had to try very hard not to see them. * * Do you really need me to spell everything out for you like a child?
I was hoping you might pick one as each could evolve into quite an in depth discussion which I don't think would bear much fruit in any event. 1. Education - Government does and should provide assistance in funding primary education. The parents should have more say, and in fact the final word on who they accept as educators for their children. Federal government has no way of determining the quality of the educators in every school system in the country, but parents of students do. Teachers who produce poor results should be easily removed and replaced. University degrees are nice to have and there are a number of universities that provide decent education at a relatively low cost. While a higher education may count for something, there are many people who have become successful with limited or very little education. 2. Environment - Blame the parent(s) if they take no responsibility when bringing a new life into existence. You might even place a little responsibility on the "make love, not war" movement as neither option comes without cost. 3. Social connectivity - Pick and choose your friends carefully. The best way to obtain valuable friends is to be seen as a value to others. People tend to more freely share among those who they find a value to themselves. Take a look at how our government works, and who gets appointed to jobs that exceeds even the Peter Principles ability to explain. 4. Economic class - Each of us is born into a class of some economic value. Some rise above it, some fall below it and others remain in the same class. You can accept the class you're born into as your maximum, or you can make it the minimum and work to change it. My parents achieved more than my Grandparents, and my brothers and I have achieved more than our parents. If you just accept as fact that you're underprivileged, then maybe you should just buy lottery tickets. There you go, I've touched on the four areas specifically mentioned. I have no problem accepting that people sometimes need a hand up, but retain the right to make the determination of when it becomes a handout, at which time I will make the decision to continue or not.
How was I supposed to know the insurance companies take your money and then cancel the policy when claims are submitted. I did think about the future, and planned for it. Corporate America fucked me, and my family. The saving grace is that my family comes from a culture that has been fucked by the white man for over 400 years. My father taught me to always have a backup plan. I'm now living that plan quite comfortably. Government, I believe, should be there for it's citizens as the backup of last resort. A government that allows it's citizens to suffer just isn't worth a shit. .
All I can say is read the contract, and ask questions. Yet you continue to complain. That's where we differ greatest. In reality it is the citizens you wish to depend on, and in order to get what you wish from them you would give government the power to take what ever it is you feel you need from them. This does not build a society but instead divides it. Individual needs can vary greatly, and rather than a government imposed one fix applied to all approach, more productive and cost effective assistance is provided on a case by case basis which can only be done reasonably and rationally at the local level where the facts of each case are visible.
That is because you seem to insist on having this simplistic way of looking at things, people who’ve had a little bit more experience of life know that things are far more complex, that an issue or problems don’t stand alone but are the product and result of a myriad of other issues and problems. For example to you ‘Education’ seems to be simply schools and school teachers, I mean you even only think of it from primary level. To you education is formal education, as if nothing outside of school and school hours counts. You’ve blinkered yourself and seemingly you can’t and will not see, or think, beyond your narrow vision. The thing is that the greatest impact on a human’s education is connected to socio-economic station and the education level of guardians which has an impact on environment and educational possibilities. Extra wealth can buy a better education, it can purchase pre-school places, it can mean a parent been able to stay at home with the child, it means been able to buy into an area with good schools, it means been able to afford educational trips, it means that private tutoring and be paid for or summer schools, it means having the ability to pay for private schools with small class sizes personal tuition and top of the range facilities (where they can make connections that can help them in the future), it means that educational tools are available or can be bought and so on. And the thing is that educated parents more often than not produce educated children and not all of that is conscious education a lot of what children learn is picked up by just watching and listening what is going on around them (their environment). So even before normal formal education begins those from higher socio-economic groups have an advantage and wealth can mean keeping that advantage. * You haven’t sort enlightenment just chosen a scapegoat and wash you hands of the problem. Thing is that a child’s environment can be good or bad but that is often a consequence of where and to who they are born. What you seem to be saying is that the child deserved everything it gets just for being born, so nothing could or should be done. From what is available to you - and that will be to a very great extent dictated by your socio-economic station. Friends from a higher class have a lot more connections into better jobs and career opportunities than those from lower groups. * It’s called Social Mobility; the thing is that the US mobility record isn’t that good. Well I’m still not convinced that you’re not a teenager (especially when you come out with things like the lottery quip). But the thing is that citing family history gives me the impression you haven’t really given this issue much thought in its wider context – claiming your family has done OK so everyone else should have done, doesn’t really work does it? Well, sorry but it didn’t really go, it didn’t really go very far, to me it did more to highlight how little thought you’ve actually given to such things. But how can you make an informed decision from a position of ignorance or prejudice? I mean you don’t seem that well informed on the issues we’ve covered and seem to have given them little thought and worse don’t seem willing to give them some thought.
I gave up part way through the second page... A good life is not dependant on being born rich, and being born rich is not a guarantee of having a good life. Claims such as people cannot choose to not buy food, is just plain wrong. There are many ways to gather food, either on public lands, or on private lands that have ZERO to do with commercialism, and no, buying a piece of property is NOT supporting the food industry or the car industry or any other industry besides the construction industry (if you hire people to build you a house). Here's a thought for those who think a 'good life' is dependant on being born rich... That money can all be taken away from you in an instant, if your happiness and 'good life' is dependant on it, you have just lost everything, including happiness and the good life, all because you choose to believe your happiness and having a good life is dependant on such things... Happiness, and having a good life, are things that come from inside of you.
I don't have the time or the patience to discuss in detail a variety of topics rolled into one. I look at complex problems as having less complex roots which should be determined and attempt to determine solutions working forward from that point.
Indie But how can you come to a solution if you don’t understand the problem and you clearly don’t and worse you don’t seem to want to understand any problems. All you seem capable of is sprouting slogans and evading debate - of which this reply is just another example. The only reason you believe things are simple is because you look at them in a simple and shallow way, while giving free rein to you prejudices and unquestioning faith in a political religion. I hope you are a teenager because then there is the possibility that you might one day pull down that poster of Ayn Rand on your wall, get a girl friend and experience something of the real world and hopefully just hopefully you might then look back at that dead end political philosophy you used to hold true as the sad joke it really is.
I have foraged, admittedly during the growing season, in urban residential environments, without the need to supplement with purchases. I think that statements about what is absolutely required might be toned down a bit to accommodate the facts. Our prohibitive word formulas can keep us from recognizing available resources, and cause us to use what we have in a way that is ultimately self defeating.
Some of the happiest people I know live in refrigerator boxes and forage in dumpsters. The city affords many opportunities for free shelter and food. To most of us, a landfill is a disgusting place, but, to those in the know, it's a smorgasbord of culinary delight. .
When young, I used to forage for electronics components in the local dump, and was able to build transmitters, receivers, and even able to get a working TV from the parts of several. For food I would recommend rivers, lakes and forests as a better source. Anyone remember Ewell Givens? Maybe schools should include a survival course? The worlds population is well over 6 billion now, and growing. How many actual jobs do we have available world wide? Are there enough high paying jobs for everyone to be equalized economically?
Just on my personal 3 acres there are blackberries (very good, but only in July), muscadines (also good, but only in the late summer), hickory nuts (very good, only in the late fall), wild strawberries (no so good, but edible), and Georgia's most abundant food source, the pine tree (haven't developed a taste yet for the bark). I also have available many animals, but this can be sickening or even fatal at times. The only reason these are abundant is that there is not a herd of humans depleting the source. One only need to look at Africa to see the effects of foraging for food and resources. Many areas there are totally barren as a result of human consumption and millions of people are starving while many animals are becoming extinct. Here, the only reason these resources are plentiful is most people do not avail themselves of them. This is not an option for 300 million people to use. Also, everybody is not a Ewell Gibbons or a Grisly Adams; there are things in this forest that will kill you. Just a coincidence, but a neighbor was scouting out blackberries and plums on his property Sunday and was bitten by a snake. Luckily, it was a dry bite. (snakes are edible, too). .
I did the same when I was younger. I made a nice second income repairing and selling the stuff. Often, I made more doing this than I did at my full time job. .
Can't say I recall what happened to him. When I was young we used to eat a number of wild plants, dandelion, watercress, and poke salad to name a few, and not because we had to. Where I now live wild growing edible plants are quite abundant and sought after.
Using a mix of GDP by PPP in per capita form, you don't get a true observation of average wages in a country, but you get a decent rounding. For example, the United States is listed at about $45,000 per capita, and the average wage in the US is around $40,000. The global economy's estimated value when using the entire's worlds population comes out to about $10,500 a head. Which if everyone was literally equal, everyone would have the same average salary as someone in Brazil, Costa Rica, Lebanon, Bulgaria, and Serbia. A bit lower than Turkey, Mexico, Argentina. The point is though is everyone doesn't need to be equal, there's just no reason not to give people adequate levels of protection when there are people in your own country who's personal fortune is larger than that of numerous nations.
While I won't deny that luck has an effect on ones life, it sounds like you are proof that effort can also produce a positive effect.
