So what? That guy didn’t have to worry his own dad would fucking kill him with a shotgun in the middle of the night. Or that the chemicals from historical mining in the water supply would fuck up his brain growing up. Or that he’d have his arms torn off by a combine and bleed to death in a field.
What is this, feel guilty because someone might have some aspect of their life that is worse? Or that it might be worse because of their race, sex, nationality, etc.? Again, what’s the point? To use some glorified voodoo words to say, “Some have got it worse?” No shit. We treat people like shit, often in whole or in part due to race, sex, etc.? Is this some revelation?
Is it also a revelation that these things are not universal, and that there are plenty of “privileged” people who have it a lot worse than “unprivileged” people?
Well, that’s where you’re wrong. He had to worry about all of those things too, plus worry that a cop might shoot his son just for existing. That is exactly the point, that some of us have a harder row to hoe than others because of an accident of birth, and those of us who don’t should understand that. If you think your lot was harder, then by all means feel that way, but it’s no skin off your nose if other people acknowledge their privilege, is it?
Nesrie discusses a good point, which I think has been mentioned on these boards before, also. It’s that if you’re poor then you have no margin of safety. If you’re poor and you make a mistake, or a parent makes a mistake, or just simply something unfortunate happens, then recovering from that setback is much, much more difficult than it would be if you were higher up the socioeconomic ladder.
For an example, President Trump was born into wealth. Four times businesses which he owns have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and in spite of that he was able to continue on in his other businesses and making more money. Then consider an upper middle class family-owned business which files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy… recovery for them will be much harder than it was for Trump.
And in this scenario I won’t even bother detailing working class and lower, but it should be a self-evident truth that recovery from financial hardships that hit such individuals and families will be even more difficult.
It’s not just margin of safety. It’s actual life opportunities.
Poor people do not get to try out marginal or risky careers, in the hope they can make them work. They don’t get to decide to “take a shot” at being an English professor or a film critic, in the same way that rich kids can, for example. Because if it does not work, there is no ancillary money out there to support them, no ability to just simply reboot and go do another career with their parents’ money and backing.
Good point. I like the Churchill quote “success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” It does assume that you can reasonably recover from a given failure. If you know that a single large failure can put you in a very bad position, it makes sense to be more cautious and to put more emphasis on avoiding the failure rather than chasing the dazzling success. Then we as a society all miss out on the lost potential of that success.
I should also add, the notion of being “self-actualized” is very much a wealthy person’s luxury.
It drives me nuts when I see people asking why the poor “chose” such dead-end boring jobs.
Once again, it’s because the poor don’t have the luxury of trying five fucking careers in their 20s on mommy’s and daddy’s money until they find their “calling.”
I went to college with so many rich kids who just kind of bumped around for a decade or more trying different things. They seem so confused that anyone would ever be stuck in a job they didn’t like.
