Why you feel america is failing

[dishwab]

People like you are the problem not me. I believe no matter how humble your origins, how deplorable your living situation may be, you have just as much opportunity to drag your ass out of it as the next guy, you just have to work a little harder to do so.

We are not talking about mommy and daddy paying for your post secondary education or giving you everything from a good job at the family business and over paying you for it or paying for your every need though your trust funds. We are talking about the fundamental freedom to make your own way in life and sink or swim. We are talking about people who have NOTHING or came to this country WITH NOTHING, and now have or have created much of the very things we take for granted every day.

Sure some people have the deck stacked against them, and some have the benefit of former generations in their families success, sure there is some luck involved in it too. That still does not change the fact you can go out and make your own success no matter where you were born, went to school, or any other factor. You have the same opportunity as the next guy to drag your happy ass to the upper east side (if you dont get the reference then look up the jeffersons).

Those that raise them selves above their humble beginnings are the back bone of what makes this country what it is. Bottom line success wont come to those who wait for it to find them, you have to go out and find it or make it for your self.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. - Thomas Jefferson

I found my life really started to improve for the better after I started to try and live by this quote.


For the record I grew up in one of the POOREST counties in MI full of nothing but abject poverty and farmers, not all that far from your shit hole of Detroit, my parents raised us on less than I paid the feds in taxes last year. Now I do very well for my self, I have to make some tough sacrifices to make that happen, but you do what you have to do to make something of your self.

I am nothing special and remarkably average, IF I CAN DO IT ANYONE CAN.............................


whats your excuse ????

It's genuinely excellent that you were able to turn your circumstances around and make something of yourself, but just because you were able to do so doesn't mean that every single person born and raised in similar or worse conditions will be able to do the same. Likewise, if they don't, it doesn't necessarily make them lazy, stupid, or otherwise.

Poverty, be it rural or urban, is very difficult to overcome (as are its byproducts). If you're a kid growing up with drug addicted parents who don't give a shit about raising you, going to failing public schools in a failing city, who are you supposed to look up to? Who do you learn from? What about people who are mentally unstable and can't get the support they need? Sure, it's possible to overcome a situation like this but is it probable? Not at all.

Everyone is quite clearly not dealt the same hand in life.

And I don't have any excuses, I've worked extremely hard, earned a full college scholarship, and am now able to work in a field that I enjoy. I also realize, though, that I was very lucky to be raised in a stable middle class home by supportive parents - and there are many, many others out there who don't enjoy that luxury.

[mrsleeve]

Your still not getting it. Its not about the hand your dealt, its about the ability to do or become anything you want to be. Yes not everyone is going to make it to be the CEO, POTUS, Astronaut, Vet, Doctor, or other child hood dream job, but if your work to one of those goals and dont make it, its prolly because you found something better for yourself along the way


The circumstances your dealt in life that you have little to no control over dont negate the opportunities that abound all over the country to over come them.

I am not saying those circumstances dont play a role in your life. Its the fundamentally basic condition that everyone in this country has the opportunity to make something better out of them selves no matter what or where they come from.

Its a fundamentally different way of thinking and your argument that not everyone has that opportunity is BS. Opportunity comes in many forms and many levels some greater and more obvious than others. Blaming your failures on your circumstances is nothing more than an excuse to try and justify it to your self why you didnt live up to your own expectations and dreams, its also a product of the entitlement mentality, that everything one desires should be handed to you or should come easy.

[bmwstephen]

^I agree with Mr. Sleeve. The probability for them to overcome their situation is undoubtly higher now than before by that logic. Considering the wide availability of resources and higher standard of living in the recent years, to say that you are a victim in circumstance does sound more like excuses than anything.

I mean, just volunteering at my youth center where I fix up the public computers, I find it amazing that some of our youths (the delinquent demographic) now a days just take it for granted. Moreover, they google for porn more than googling for apprenticeships or free homework help.

sad times....

[mrsleeve]

Dishwab

Here you go, he may have only gotten a job at a restaurant but this is how you do it, this kid right here is WHY AMERICA IS NOT FAILING, this brings a little hope that all may not be lost after all and some kids still have a real work ethic.


http://fox59.com/2013/02/22/teen-goe...#axzz2LhZZxsqy

For those to lazy to click

What started out as a miserable day battling an icy 10-mile walk for a job interview, ended with a job offer and social media fame for an Indianapolis teen.

It was all thanks to a chance encounter along the way.

Art Bouvier decided to delay the opening of his restaurant, Papa Roux Cajun Cooking, due to the snow and ice. It was when he was salting down his sidewalk that he noticed a young man, 18-year-old Jhaqueil Reagan, walking toward him with a determined look on his face.

“He came walking through the parking lot and cutting the corner to get down westbound on 10th Street and he says, ‘Excuse me, can you tell me how far it is to 10th and Sherman?’” said Bouvier, who also goes by Papa. “I looked at the ground, it’s all ice, and I said, ’10th and Sherman? That’s about six or seven miles away. You’re not going to get there anytime soon in this weather. You’ll probably need to take a bus, and he said, ‘Okay, thank you sir.’ And he just kept going.”

Not only was 10th Street icy, it doesn’t have a sidewalk for an extended stretch on the east side. Papa said that’s why he was surprised to run into Reagan again while driving down 10th Street 20 minutes later.

“I said, well how come you’re not on the bus?” Papa said. “He said, ‘I can’t afford the bus until I get a job.’”

Reagan told Papa that he was walking to a job interview for a minimum wage job at a local thrift store. Though Papa knew the interview was at 10th and Sherman, he soon found out that Reagan was actually living at 42nd and Post, nearly 10 miles away.

“I’m thinking to myself, here’s a kid walking almost 10 miles in the ice and slush and snow for the hope of a job at minimum wage,” Papa said. “That’s the kind of story your parents used to tell, my parents used to tell, up both ways in the snow.”

Papa gave him a ride the rest of the way, gave him money for lunch, and told him he’d try to see if he could find room for him in his kitchen if he still needed a job after the interview.

Papa then shared Regan’s story on Facebook. Within a few hours he had more than 7,000 likes.

“More likes than I have friends,” Papa said. “It’s been shared 1,200 times. I have no explanation for that.”

On Friday night that promise became reality. Papa, called Reagan and offered him a job. He also offered to pick him up and bring him in for his first shift.

“I’m lucky I met him,” Reagan said. “I’m really lucky I met him.”

Reagan said it’s been hard finding opportunities. He was forced to quit school two years ago when his mother died. He completed his GED while staying home to care for his siblings.

Now that he has a job, and a following on Facebook?

“It’s crazy. I don’t even know. It’s really crazy,” Reagan said. “My heart’s just racing right now. I’m just too excited, just excited to start.”

“I can show you the ropes tonight if you want. We’re really busy in there,” Papa said to Reagan.

“Thank you very much,” Reagan said.

Reagan’s story inspired an outpouring of support on Facebook. Several people offered to buy him a bus pass in order to make it to his new job, but that won’t be necessary. After seeing the story on Fox59, a representative with IndyGo offered him a complimentary one year bus pass.

[z31maniac]

Because we let poor people vote.

[mrsleeve]

Because we let poor people vote. 3, 4 and even up to 6 times

there fixed that for you

[Dozyproductions]

Because American's can't deal with reality. Therefore we create euphemisms.

[evandael]

sleeve, et. al.. the exceptional cases are just that, exceptions.


please keep in mind that many of us on this website have a 'life situation' with a lot of built in freebies for upward mobility. examples:

male? you're in.
white? big ticket item there.
did your parents stay together during your childhood? +1000
even if you did grow up in a hard-times working class neighborhood, could you say it was worse when opposed to a blighted and systematically ignored den of drugs and violence? *ding ding ding*

you speak as if we all live in a world that is conducive to utopian, theoretical 'american' ideals. while i agree that there are routes to success that involve sacrifice, personal strength, and attitude.. sure, everyone has a theoretical 'opportunity', but due to huge differences in social environment and engrained expectations/prejudices..


not. every. one. has. the. same. chance.


america might be failing.. because america won't look out for america.

[gwb72tii]

sleeve, et. al.. the exceptional cases are just that, exceptions.


please keep in mind that many of us on this website have a 'life situation' with a lot of built in freebies for upward mobility. examples:

male? you're in.
white? big ticket item there.
did your parents stay together during your childhood? +1000
even if you did grow up in a hard-times working class neighborhood, could you say it was worse when opposed to a blighted and systematically ignored den of drugs and violence? *ding ding ding*

you speak as if we all live in a world that is conducive to utopian, theoretical 'american' ideals. while i agree that there are routes to success that involve sacrifice, personal strength, and attitude.. sure, everyone has a theoretical 'opportunity', but due to huge differences in social environment and engrained expectations/prejudices..


not. every. one. has. the. same. chance.


america might be failing.. because america won't look out for america.

tell that to the vietnamese imigrants, or the koreans, or the chinese

or the two twins on "amazing race". black, single mom, shit childhood. now doctors.

i think its more upbringing than society, not saying society doesn't have influence, but being a victim is a choice everybit as much as choosing to get ahead.

[mrsleeve]

sleeve, et. al.. the exceptional cases are just that, exceptions.


please keep in mind that many of us on this website have a 'life situation' with a lot of built in freebies for upward mobility. examples:

male? you're in.
white? big ticket item there.
did your parents stay together during your childhood? +1000
even if you did grow up in a hard-times working class neighborhood, could you say it was worse when opposed to a blighted and systematically ignored den of drugs and violence? *ding ding ding*

you speak as if we all live in a world that is conducive to utopian, theoretical 'american' ideals. while i agree that there are routes to success that involve sacrifice, personal strength, and attitude.. sure, everyone has a theoretical 'opportunity', but due to huge differences in social environment and engrained expectations/prejudices..


not. every. one. has. the. same. chance.


america might be failing.. because america won't look out for america.

Yes your correct, but just because one ignores chance and opportunity to better ones self due to the stigma/expectations/prejudices/ peer-social pressures of those you associate with does NOT NEGATE THE FACT THEY EXIST AND ARE AVAILABLE. This is about being responsible for your self and nothing more, you chose to not take those opportunities, and stay in the ghetto or what ever your blaming your failures on THATS ON NO ONE BUT YOU. No one ever said life would be fair or easy.

[herbivor]

No one ever said life would be fair or easy.

Well, unless you live in Denmark....

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/865/1/

When asked why they are happy, Danes usually give two reasons. First, they point out that most of their society is not created for the upper class. Just the opposite, nearly all things are catered to the middle class. Hence, there is a sense of contentment, which is key. There is little of the mentality of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ or a 1% vs 99% debate.
Second, they mention the great services that the state provides. This comes at a price—extremely high taxes. But it turns out high taxes have another benefit. People tend to decide on an occupation based on what they like and not based on earning potential. Incomes are somewhat comparable across the country so that a garbage collector lives in the same kind of neighborhood as a doctor. As a general rule, prestige is not so important: the garbage collector gets the same kind of respect as the doctor for a job well done. This creates happiness as well.

[bmwstephen]

Well, unless you live in Denmark....
http://www.culturechange.org/cms/content/view/865/1/

most of the citizens in china were content with their lifestyle under chairman mao's rule because it created an equal class. They were always fed, they had education, they had shelter, they had public transportation.

but at the same time, they never knew all what life had to offer. they had no concept of eating more than two meals a day, or to enjoy 2 days of leisure after 5 days of labor. that is until, they stepped foot in America and, well, didn't leave.

Did they renounce their native country because they trying to "keep up with the jones?". Heck they can careless, they simply chose to be an American because it provided them an experience and opportunity they could never conceptualize at the time.

[herbivor]

most of the citizens in china were content with their lifestyle under chairman mao's rule because it created an equal class. They were always fed, they had education, they had shelter, they had public transportation.

but at the same time, they never knew all what life had to offer. they had no concept of eating more than two meals a day, or to enjoy 2 days of leisure after 5 days of labor. that is until, they stepped foot in America and, well, didn't leave.

Did they renounce their native country because they trying to "keep up with the jones?". Heck they can careless, they simply chose to be an American because it provided them an experience and opportunity they could never conceptualize at the time.

Are you seriously trying to compare Maoist China to Denmark? You're not making your case. Try reading the whole article for a little more insight to what makes a happy country instead of shutting down and thinking socialism= evil communism.

[bmwstephen]

was only trying to compare the principles using a real life experience from my parents but I guess using China is always an extreme example :rolls eyes: (sucks to be of Chinese descent).

What I was trying to emphasize is that my parents were happy and content at the time but that was because they did not know what was out there.

the same with den citizens. most of their contentment and happiness were shaped by their public policy. my ex who went to Denmark to study abroad for an architectural program mentioned how bikes were the most valued form of public transportation in Denmark. Well.. thats because their vehicle import tarriffs are sky high, gasoline prices are out of this world, so some people never bothered with driving let alone experience it.

Because they never had any concept of owning or driving a vehicle (not saying all of them do), most denmarkians are satisfied with their current way of transport. But honestly, if they were given the opportunity to own or experience it, I highly doubt they will be content or happy with what they have.

[mrsleeve]

Out from rasmussen today 86% of people in the US believe you can get ahead with a little bit of hard work and you make your own success in life. Seems you "its not fair, not everyone has a chance" guys are still in the minority. Thank goodness I was starting to lose a bit of faith there for a while.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/february_2013/86_believe_individuals_make_their_own_success

Herbie: There is nothing wrong with being content with what you have, nothing at all but its also a double edged sword. As then again you have no motivation to advance or do great things either now do you.

When/what was the last great thing you heard of coming out of the denmark?????

Lets just use research and development in general for a example the Danes dont even make the god dammed map..............