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Politics : Mainstream Politics and Economics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (388)	9/1/2011 3:19:09 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 85487

It's easy to project yourself into the shoes of another and think "if that was me I'd..." but the problem is that the person isn't you and almost never has your education, intellect, skills and advantages. I can guarantee you that in locales like mine, with the people I know, your world is far away. Empathy should make you understand that. Ed Very easy for you to make assumptions, isn't it? I'm not going to compare war stories with you, suffice it to say that with my dad being a restaurant manager raising 5 kids, we were far from rich. We were far from middle class. I have two step sisters who have been on and off welfare for the past 25 years or so. Out of 5 kids, only two of us graduated from high school. I worked hard to not have the life that I was seemingly destined to have. I started working when I was 13 years old. And I have been working ever since. Certainly some credit is due to my Mother helping me get a job at a computer company while I was in college and drilling it in my head that I didn't have to live that life. Even then, I worked full time while I went to college. I'm sorry, when you bring up advantages, you are assuming way too much. As far as empathy, I am surrounded by the people you mention. My step-sisters have been gaming the system for years.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (388)	9/1/2011 5:18:23 PM
From: Brumar89	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 85487

Both my parents were the first in our family to graduate high school. I had one grandparent who made it through the 8th grade. My Dad was a union construction worker too, as was I for a few years. I lived part of my youth in a home without indoor plumbing. The water ran when I pumped it out of the cistern. One of my grandfathers was a sharecropper as was a great grandfather on the other side. My Dad was one of 11 children so I have a lot of cousins ... to this day, I believe myself and my brother are the only college grads in our extended family. And yet I'm not a liberal. I think the only way to lift people is for them to lift themselves by their own efforts. I think the left does great harm to poor folks, encouraging resentment and the belief that success is a result of primarily of luck or government favor, not effort.