My father's father was an orphan whose parents died poor in south London of tuberculosis and he was one of those shipped out to NZ [there is fashionable moaning about exactly those children these days]. His brother died of tuberculosis some time after arrival. He married a woman whose mother was a refugee from the Franco Prussian war of the early 1870s, making it to NZ with 3 young daughters and no husband to a life of poverty. Such privilege! My father was a child during World War I when swarms of men from NZ went and didn't come back, including his cousin Ormond Burton who went to Gallipoli and after surviving the horrors of that went to France to join the horrors of that muddy gore and mayhem. You can ask Google about him.
Then, when my father was 20, just getting going, the Great Depression came along. Joy of joys. Then, when that was moderating, Germany decided to have another go. He volunteered to go "because Hitler had to be stopped" as he said to me. After 4 years of living in tents in the desert, waking up if the shellfire stopped because the silence was unusual, he came back and was finally able to get his life underway.
On the other side, my ancestors moved to Norfolk Island [he to be a storeman and teacher when the Pitcairners were moved there by the British]. That solitary little island was not a land of wealth and privilege. One of their daughters married a bloke working on a mission ship.
As far as I know, none of them committed crimes, lived by bludging, drank booze in any quantity. As far as I know they lived lives of Virtuous Victorian Values [near enough for government work].
"Trails of jobs" involve actual willing work with talent and energy. They are not handed out as perks for being the right person. I got no pension from BP. I got my own money back which I had put in, without interest.
I accept from the government whatever I'm legally entitled to. We have laws and I live by them. I pay taxes as required and collect money and services as I'm able. Some people I know lived on the handout mentality. I made a decision that while that was the easier way, it would never lead to the level of success and freedom that I thought possible. That was 30 years ago when we were renting a run down house with threadbare carpet and they were living in a swanky new Lockwood home financed by government benefits.
It's quite annoying to be treated as though I'm some kind of royalty who had it handed to me. Especially by a presumed state bludger living the cushy life on the tax payer's tit and voting for more of the same. I'll never get back what I have paid in and swarms of bludgers are all over the state in NZ so the taps will be turned off sooner rather than later.
I can easily live on a pittance and have done so. <Chances are quite good, matured Maurice would be in the "bludger" pogee line hollering "more i can't live on this pittance" not experiencing..""" PEACE, light, harmony, happiness, health, prosperity, longevity, fun AND LOVE. > It's simple and pleasant. My main problem is learning to be a spendthrift like everyone around me. I tried drinking, but it disrupts the brain too much.
No empathy? I'm pretty good on empathy thanks. Sympathy too. [Maybe you confused one with the other - people do these days]
I have observed over a long time that while many people talk a good "do gooder" line, somehow it's me who just happens to be available and willing to help when the need arises. The do-gooders are far too busy just then.
It's all about philosophical foundations GG. Poor people don't need to be drunks, criminals, bludgers and generally the opposite of Virtuous Victorian Values which are free for anyone to adopt as their own. There's no patent royalty, no permit required. One doesn't need to be English.
It's quite annoying to see the constant correlations of poverty with crime and carnage as though there is a causal relationship. "If only we could end poverty, we could cut the crime". Poor people are not ipso facto criminals. Being poor does not cause obesity either. Historically, poverty involved hunger, sticking out ribs, and sometimes death from starvation. The "poor" are not in danger of that.
Life is not a mindless accident of birth. People have brains with minds and they make their own lives. In many respects I have changed my mind in the face of facts I've faced. Thinking is not installed at birth and forced on people by their parents. On the contrary, young people starting at about age 2 say "No!" They have minds of their own and self-determination.
Apparently you haven't had children. When they turn two, they get a part of their brain which develops faster than the pubescent growth spurt and that part says "No!"
As long as I can remember, I have run my own life, in the sense of determining myself what I think, picking up ideas here and there, many of them turning out to be bung. Of course I have a cultural norm derived from those around me, but the cultural control is nowhere near as total as you suggest.
It doesn't make sense that it's as you say, with each poor individual merely following the crowd. If everyone is following, nobody is leading. Surely you have heard of Free Will, Adam and Eve and the apple and all that. God gave Man free will. While the giving process wasn't like that [a big Santa handing it down from on high], we are not like ants which simply follow the chemical instruction set according to our DNA. We actually have minds. Self-determined minds. You can change yours. You don't have to stay stuck in your mindset like being in a cage. Bust loose and take another look around, from first principles, without assumptions. We are individuals with our own minds. Blaming somebody else for our own actions is silly.
Mqurice |
