It is up to each and every individual to take advantage of every opportunity available. Government should make sure all of the opportunities are available, but the individual has to make the most of it.
And wonder if they can't.........wonder if they are missing a leg or an arm or their brain doesn't work properly because their mother did crack while she was pregnant.
....or wonder if they have three kids, their wife is sick and they get laid off. They've worked hard everyday for the last ten years but that doesn't matter......mostlikely, they will end up on the street or suffer the fear they will for the next ten years.
........or how about if they are working, and the wife is working but they can't afford health insurance and one of the kids needs surgery to live. Do they let the kid die?
I'm not saying that opportunities are necessarily equal across the board. Some will have access to many opportunities; others with few if any. Also, bad things happen to good people. But how people deal with said hardships defines character and accomplishment. Mask that over with government handouts, and you'll create a culture where hard work and accomplishment is discouraged over jockeying for freebies.
You admit that bad things happen to good people but then you don't want any handouts. So what does that make you.......a hardass, a tough love parent, or just a cheap asshole who begrudges his tax money helping someone else?
You don't need to respond to me............that's between you and your maker.
I'll never forget the story of one kid growing up in the barrio. His friends have all dropped out of school, and one of them was even taunting him, saying "You're a fool for staying in school! I've got a job now and I'm making real money!" Later on, when the kid finally finished high school (which to him was the toughest thing he's ever had to do in his life), his friend expressed his regret for dropping out.
Please....for every successful barrio story, there are thousands who die on the street or live in deep poverty their entire lives. Hillary Swank is playing a teacher who turns her barrio kids around in two months. In reality, the teacher whom Swank plays took years before she found the key that helped only some of her students. I've said it before Americans love these horatio alger stories and they love goosing them up to make them sound even more implausible. It makes for some nice popcorn viewing but they also give people who don't want to share their good fortune the balls to say no.
Do you know that the US is the only industrialized nation not to provide paid maternity leave?
This crap: "that which doesn't kill us only makes us stronger shit" is designed to let the rich keep all their money safely in their wallets and bank accts. We are the cheapest, industrialized nation in the world when it comes to taking care of our people. I am tired of this scrooge-like cheapness......its unbecoming of a nation so rich.
Now you tell me, who took the easy way out, and who stuck with it through all of the hardships of growing up in a poor neighborhood with its poverty and gangs? Who was the one with a sense of accomplishment despite overwhelming odds, and who became another victim of the cycle of poverty? Who valued education and opportunity, and who squandered it only to regret it later?
Wonderful platitudes........I don't know what to tell you, Ten. Its true........there are people who squander every opportunity and then there are others who just can't seem to get ahead no matter how hard they try. I am not sure how you distinguish between the two. I am not sure it matters.
What I do know is that Americans live too close to the edge.....we have less security than most people in the industrialized world, and for that, we pay a steep price. |
