If Only The Poor Could Eat Pomposity
To the Editor:
I don't think I can take another editorial or letter about "the poor." You and others claim "we need to do more." In fact, we do more than enough. Being poor in this country is, in the majority of cases, the result of one's own decisions.
And enough about "hunger." How many people can you find who are going hungry? I'm not asking how many are using welfare, food stamps, food pantries, etc. I'm asking, how many are going hungry? There have been no recorded deaths from starvation in this country in any recent decade and over half the population is overweight!
Your latest barrage was over child care subsidies. What, you ask, is a poor working mother with three children to do? Start by not having three children with no way to support them! The monstrous welfare society we have created simply enables people to shirk their duty to be a responsible citizen.
Your view is warped, you inundate us with stories of "brave women" who got through school with three kids while on welfare and are now self-supportive. So what? So the rest of us, who got our educations, got married, bought a home, then had children, and paid for all of it ourselves, are somehow less than these "brave women" because we did it the right way? Please.
Sometimes the well runs dry, and then sometimes the flood of stupidity seems almost too overwhelming to tackle. Today was an example of the latter. Choosing a letter to comment on was challenging not because none of them were quite batshit enough, but because a good handful deserved some serious attention. I settled on the one above, mostly because it is self-righteously ignorant, which is just one of my favorites.
First of all, you have to love the tenacity in the way these morons constantly state that "Being poor in this country is, in the majority of cases, the result of one's own decisions." What an absolutely idiotic assertion. How many people do you know who "decided" to be poor? Nuns and private school teachers are the only people who come immediately to mind. Look, my wife and I are educated people. In fact, it is her ten years of working towards her Ph.D. that is responsible for the majority of our debt, because a full set of post-grad at an ivy league college isn't available at All For A Dollar. All it would take would be for one of us to lose our jobs to introduce us to the wonderful world of poverty. I guess we could blame it on her "decision" to get her Ph.D., but frankly, I think I'd be quicker to blame the shitty job market and the death of job security in America. That's just me.
Of course our decisions are a big part of where we end up. They're not the only factor, though, which is something that Johnny Whitebread here is too priveleged to comprehend. It's not that our "view is warped," asshat. It's that your view is too rigid. You can't see beyond your own silver-spoon-fed baby fat. There are people out there who weren't priveledged enough to grow up with examples of material success, or a clearly defined way to reach it for themselves. Children of the poor have a significantly larger chance of living in poverty as adults. Do children who grow up poor just make bad decisions? Or is it more likely that the widening gap between the rich and poor in this country is making it even harder for those who start from a lower rung to climb their way to the top? Studies show that living in poverty exposes children to higher risks of learning disabilities, emotional disorders, and developmental problems. Guess those kids made a poor decision to grow up in poverty.
If you're an asshole who just doesn't want to feel guilty about not helping the poor, then grow some balls and be self-righteous about that. Don't make an idiot of yourself by professing that the poor don't really exist, or that they have a reasonable way out of their situation. You are correct that people do not have to starve to death in this country, but it's not because of cold-blooded pricks like you. Fortunately, enough of us have a sense of common decency that we make sure there is a minimum standard by which everyone should live. It's still not high enough, but at least some of us still have souls. People may not starve, but you better believe that this winter a lot of people will either be cold or hungry, as food and energy costs go up while their meager little welfare paychecks stay meager. But hey, don't worry about it. You'll be well-fed. You'll be warm. And you'll most likely still be a stuck-up shithead.
No, you are not "less than those 'brave women'"who have to get by on federal assistance, but more importantly, you're not more than them either. As human beings, we all have intrinsic worth. However if it came down to someone having to starve to death, them or you, they would be the greater loss.
I don't think I can take another editorial or letter about "the poor." You and others claim "we need to do more." In fact, we do more than enough. Being poor in this country is, in the majority of cases, the result of one's own decisions.
And enough about "hunger." How many people can you find who are going hungry? I'm not asking how many are using welfare, food stamps, food pantries, etc. I'm asking, how many are going hungry? There have been no recorded deaths from starvation in this country in any recent decade and over half the population is overweight!
Your latest barrage was over child care subsidies. What, you ask, is a poor working mother with three children to do? Start by not having three children with no way to support them! The monstrous welfare society we have created simply enables people to shirk their duty to be a responsible citizen.
Your view is warped, you inundate us with stories of "brave women" who got through school with three kids while on welfare and are now self-supportive. So what? So the rest of us, who got our educations, got married, bought a home, then had children, and paid for all of it ourselves, are somehow less than these "brave women" because we did it the right way? Please.
Sometimes the well runs dry, and then sometimes the flood of stupidity seems almost too overwhelming to tackle. Today was an example of the latter. Choosing a letter to comment on was challenging not because none of them were quite batshit enough, but because a good handful deserved some serious attention. I settled on the one above, mostly because it is self-righteously ignorant, which is just one of my favorites.
First of all, you have to love the tenacity in the way these morons constantly state that "Being poor in this country is, in the majority of cases, the result of one's own decisions." What an absolutely idiotic assertion. How many people do you know who "decided" to be poor? Nuns and private school teachers are the only people who come immediately to mind. Look, my wife and I are educated people. In fact, it is her ten years of working towards her Ph.D. that is responsible for the majority of our debt, because a full set of post-grad at an ivy league college isn't available at All For A Dollar. All it would take would be for one of us to lose our jobs to introduce us to the wonderful world of poverty. I guess we could blame it on her "decision" to get her Ph.D., but frankly, I think I'd be quicker to blame the shitty job market and the death of job security in America. That's just me.
Of course our decisions are a big part of where we end up. They're not the only factor, though, which is something that Johnny Whitebread here is too priveleged to comprehend. It's not that our "view is warped," asshat. It's that your view is too rigid. You can't see beyond your own silver-spoon-fed baby fat. There are people out there who weren't priveledged enough to grow up with examples of material success, or a clearly defined way to reach it for themselves. Children of the poor have a significantly larger chance of living in poverty as adults. Do children who grow up poor just make bad decisions? Or is it more likely that the widening gap between the rich and poor in this country is making it even harder for those who start from a lower rung to climb their way to the top? Studies show that living in poverty exposes children to higher risks of learning disabilities, emotional disorders, and developmental problems. Guess those kids made a poor decision to grow up in poverty.
If you're an asshole who just doesn't want to feel guilty about not helping the poor, then grow some balls and be self-righteous about that. Don't make an idiot of yourself by professing that the poor don't really exist, or that they have a reasonable way out of their situation. You are correct that people do not have to starve to death in this country, but it's not because of cold-blooded pricks like you. Fortunately, enough of us have a sense of common decency that we make sure there is a minimum standard by which everyone should live. It's still not high enough, but at least some of us still have souls. People may not starve, but you better believe that this winter a lot of people will either be cold or hungry, as food and energy costs go up while their meager little welfare paychecks stay meager. But hey, don't worry about it. You'll be well-fed. You'll be warm. And you'll most likely still be a stuck-up shithead.
No, you are not "less than those 'brave women'"who have to get by on federal assistance, but more importantly, you're not more than them either. As human beings, we all have intrinsic worth. However if it came down to someone having to starve to death, them or you, they would be the greater loss.
posted by Zafrod at 4:13 AM
1 Comments:
Saw your comment at Red Jenny. I'm doing a multi-part series on exactly this same topic, and the letter you responded to here has provided a perfect example of the ignorant, misinformed, and greedy point of view which helps to keep underpriviledged people that way. Nice response. I'm likely to link to it, since it is a shorter and more readable response that what I wrote. Oh, and the word "asshat" always makes me laugh.
Great idea for a blog, by the way. Someone needs to counter the stupidity that gets written. Keep it up!
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