Being Poor?

Whatever ^ | September 3, 2007 | John Scalzi

[Pangloss84]

This sniveling and silly study in resentment and ingratitude have been widely praised in the Lib blogosphere.

It does show just how the US victim's mentality has now passed into absurdity.

John Scalzi is a minor science fiction writer in the current Pewter Age of SF.

I have added in parenthesis what being really poor is after each of John's whines

[techcor]

“I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.

Well, that's totally bogus. It is pretty much illegal for anyone outside of the lunch accountant to know who gets free or reduced lunches. No kid ever has to say that in line for lunch anymore and hasn't for years.

[danielmryan]

I have experienced nearly everything on that list, barring maybe 4 items. I still experience quite a few of them. It’s called LIFE and you’re right, he’s a whiner.

"Hi, Mr. Writer! I own a small business. I match most of what you said on that there list of yours, so I'm thinking I'm poor.

"If so, then why am I being taxed as if I were rich?"

Someday, one of those lists will cross that line...

[jmacusa]

Being poor is an indulgence. In America at least.

[Chode]

being poor in America is having school, shelter, electricity, heat, water, food, a TV, microwave, cell phone and $100 sneakers, all paid for free...

[goodnesswins]

Being poor USUALLY is the result of POOR habits. AND, the “poor” in this country are richer than probably 90% of the world.

[A_perfect_lady]

I should add that the entries on the list about “the kids” irritate me because I don’t understand why people have kids when they know they won’t be able to take care of them. I mean, if you were doing well and then lost your job, that’s a little different, but poor people popping out babies and then yelling at the rest of us to get our butts over here and feed their kids makes me mad. This is NOT 1830, you know. We know what causes pregnancy now and we know how to avoid it. Actually, they knew how to avoid it in 1830, too. It was called “don’t get married and breed.” But nowadays, sex is considered as necessary as water and air...

[Ellendra]

That $8 per hour job he whines about could lead to somethng better — if he is reliable, dependable, a good worker, shows up on time and sober, gets along well with others, doesn’t complain.

I bought my 5 acres in 2007 while making $7.75 an hour, and that was after 5 raises. It amazed me how many of my coworkers would complain they "weren't getting paid what they were worth" when they only showed up maybe half the time, were grouchy to the customers, and did sloppy work while chattering on their cell phones the whole time. I never said it to their faces, but I remember thinking several times that they were getting paid 10x what they were worth, they just weren't worth much.

[Wiser now]

The cashier would know by the end of the first week of school anyway.

[tiki]

I’ve done many of the things he mentions mostly because I’m frugal. I have been about as broke as anyone at times in my life but I have never been poor.

I have 2 cheap vehicles that cost me a 1/4 of the cost of a new one and they still drive and look good.

When my boys were younger and we were really broke, I made their “name brand” blue jeans and shirts and my own fashion jeans. Nobody knew the difference.

I can feed 4 people for a year on what a lot of people spend in a month.

I rarely buy anything new.

I LOVE to dumpster dive.

I’m not poor and never will be.

[tiki]

I love those people who say things like, “I do all the work and the boss gets all the money.”

[Pangloss84]

Scalzi’s an okay writer. At least one can understand what he's writing about (rare in the today's literary scene).

Can't say what he writes is really science fiction, more like social commentary disguised as SF.

Check out his blog Whatever. When he writes about anything political it's the usual brainless regurgitation of Lib dogma. And the comments of his sycophants following are the typical echo chamber, dull as dirt.

[Pangloss84]

What's so damn annoying about Scalzi’s tripe is its pettiness.

Like the incessant abuse of the word “racist,” to say you're poor because you didn't have nice clothes or had to eat govt. cheese is to made the word meaningless and insults the truly destitute.

[Pangloss84]

Amazing, isn’t it? People who cannot provide for their children still have them, and if I dare resist paying for their food, toys, education, medical care, etc. they call ME selfish?

[A_perfect_lady]

We’ve been subsidizing single-mother families for 40 years. What has it gotten us? More of them than ever. I’ve read that in Regency England, as much as 65% of the women never married. (And if they were gentlewomen or ladies, that meant they lived and died as virgins.) Why? Not enough money to marry and raise children. Now if they could manage not to beget children in a time where there was NO birth control and NO safe abortions... why can’t women do it now??

[21twelve]

As a kid my old man would joke and say “I’d pay you what you are worth - but I don’t think you’d work that cheap. So how does $5 an hour sound?” (At the time - $5 was HUGE! Never had a problem getting buddies to help when needed at that wage either.)

[seowulf]

Scalzi’s observations made me laugh. Yours made me cry.

(All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, Dr. Pangloss.)

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Now if they could manage not to beget children in a time where there was NO birth control and NO safe abortions... why can’t women do it now??

They didn't manage not to beget children. A number of those single women tossed their newborn into the river or gave them away because a single woman with a child couldn't get work.

And there were both birth control and abortions. They were not advertised but every girl knew who to go to if she "got into trouble". Paying for it was another story.

And there were a lot of illegitimate children then as well. 75% of the births in St Giles were out of wedlock.

But your point of you get more of what you subsidize is taken.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Scalzi doesn't know anything about being poor.

I venture to say that most Americans don't.

When you beg your neighbor to accept your child as a unpaid servent (aka slave) because you know that they will probably be allowed food to eat? That's poor.

[A_perfect_lady]

Well, that WAS why I made a point of saying ladies/gentlewomen. The lower classes, yes, as you say. Some were foolish, some were victimized... But those who considered themselves gentlefolk did manage, mostly, to mince into old spinsterhood and old bachelorhood with their honor intact.

I can see that you got my over-all point: you get from people what you expect from them, for the most part. And a society that fully expects people to screw around like crazy and not even bother with birth control, or avail themselves of the "choice" that they so diefy, will have an ever-increasing supply of feral children who need feeding until they are big enough to rob you on their own.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

You are correct that most gentlewomen/ladies did remain virgins. Knowing that if you trespassed you would be considered ruined and tossed out of the family home, often to die, has a wonderful tendency to keep your feet on the straight and narrow.

I am not advocating people do the same now but a negative consequence does work to make people stop and think before they do something.