Originally Posted by
Alty
If it wasn't so dead on AMHD, and if there was something interesting on FB, or it was early enough in the evening to be doing anything other than this, I wouldn't be commenting. But alas here I am.
Let me preface this by saying I'm not American, heck I'm not even Canadian, but I do live in Canada. Also, Smoothy is a friend, and I hope that even though I disagree with him, we can remain friends.
I worked hard in school, I worked hard in college, I graduated college at the top of my class. I sacrificed to have a career. When my husband and I got married I was the bread winner, my job got us the loan for the house we live in, I paid the mortgage, the bills, and bought the food, he barely made enough to pay his car payment and pay for other small expenses. I worked my butt off, and I gave up my career when I had kids because being a mom was more important to me. Even then, I went back to work when my oldest was 2 years old. Then my parents got sick and both of them died of cancer within 6 1/2 months of each other. As an only child it fell on me to take care of them both, and my 2 year old son. So once again I gave up my career, and I don't regret it because I was there for my parents when they needed me. I was there when they died and took care of them before they died.
Then I had another child, and when she was 2 years old I again went back to work, and again that plan was thwarted. My MIL got sick, was sick for over a year, and again it fell on me to care of her. So again I gave up my career and focused on family.
Since then I've had jobs, but sadly because of my short stints working and then having to quit because of family obligations, I can no longer work in the career I trained for, and at 46 I can't afford to go back to college and train for a new career. Maybe that is laziness, or just being realistic. The jobs available to me now are minimum wage, maximum labor, and frankly I cannot stand for 8 hours a day at a cash register for minimum wage, nor can I stock shelves with my bad back. Not unless I'm willing to end up in the hospital or in traction. My working at minimum wage will not elevate our bank account.
Not dirt poor because hubby works, but we live paycheck to paycheck. We're both college educated. We're far from being dumb as stumps, neither of us are lazy, it just is what it is. Hubby makes $40/hour before tax. Most people would kill for that wage in the US. In Canada, at least the part we live in $40/hour is a little above the poverty line, just about middle class,but not quite. We don't have cable TV, we coupon shop, our cell phones are pay as you go and we rarely put any minutes on them, we have used cars, mine is paid for and almost 12 years old. We don't go on fancy trips, we buy our clothes and the kids clothes at thrift stores, we rarely go out to eat and when we do, well Subway is a huge treat for us, and yet we still live paycheck to paycheck.
We work our butts off to improve our situation. Yes, we do own our own home, but it needs a lot of renos we can't afford to do. We never have money to put aside for a rainy day. If it rains, it pours. When I was working at Dollarama for minimum wage we were actually making less that when I was at home. Our taxes increased, the extra cost of gas money, etc, my working at the only job I can now get at my age, even with a college degree, was actually costing us money!
You're actually calling me trailer trash, without meaning to. Also, I'm an immigrant, albeit legal.
Bottom line, just because you got ahead with hard work and education, doesn't mean that everyone will. Also, not everyone is smart enough, or has the money for college. Hard work and the will to succeed doesn't always mean that you'll make it. Do not assume that everyone that needs help to survive is stupid, lazy, a drug addict, and happy to be there and stay there. In today's job market there are doctors, actual doctors with a degree in medicine, just fresh out of school, working in McDonalds because they can't find work anywhere else. They have hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, and they're making minimum wage because those are the only jobs available to them. Think about that. I have a friend, someone you actually know too, but I won't mention his name out of respect for him, that went to medical school, finished medical school, is a licenses doctor, and the best job he can get right now pays $9/hr before tax. He's not lazy by any means, but he has $300,000 in school loans to pay off, and he's working for $9/hr. How the hell is he going to get ahead? He's far from stupid, but that's the system he's working with. Oh, and the kicker, the $9/hr job is in the medical field and he's in the US.
Frankly, unless you work for yourself, have your own business, and succeed in that business, you will never be rich, you will always depend on the person you're working for, and all it takes is one bad day, you're fired, and you'll find yourself right at the bottom with the "lazy stupid drug dealers". But who can afford to start their own business? It takes money to make money, and I don't know a single person that can risk what they make in order to make it on their own.
We're all cattle, we can't afford to be the cattle rancher, and only the cattle rancher is making enough to survive.