>
I made it and you can too. Poverty has no color. It impacts everyone. You can't tell just by looking at someone.I love your story. There's also a ton of people who will delight in cherry-picking your story, as justification for not expanding the social safety net. "throwaway-0987 did it, and you can too! You just need to stop being so lazy"
A few factors to consider:
- You had an aunt you could live with
- As a youth, you were wise enough to go to trade school and college
- As a youth, you were wise/careful enough to not have babies. Furthering your education would be far tougher when you have kids to take care of
- You had access to government programs such as Pell Grants, which many people would deride as being "government handouts"
- As a youth, you were wise enough to avoid crimes that would disqualify you from educational/employment opportunities in your adult life
Stories like yours are wonderful in inspiring people to make something of themselves. But it doesn't change the fact that we as a society should do more to help people who are caught in a poverty trap, especially because of poor decisions made when they were teenagers. Just because someone ran a 4-minute-mile doesn't mean it's reasonable to expect everyone to do so.
> Anyway, people think I'm 'privileged' now because I earn a lot of money, but they have no idea that I used to sleep on the floor and eat in soup lines.
As always in such discussions, privilege is on a spectrum and has many dimensions. To give an obvious example, even as a youth, you were privileged to be an American citizen, with all the rights, assistance and opportunities it entails. If you were born in the same circumstances in Mexico or Congo, you would find yourself facing a far different outcome.
I love your story. There's also a ton of people who will delight in cherry-picking your story, as justification for not expanding the social safety net. "throwaway-0987 did it, and you can too! You just need to stop being so lazy"
A few factors to consider:
- You had an aunt you could live with
- As a youth, you were wise enough to go to trade school and college
- As a youth, you were wise/careful enough to not have babies. Furthering your education would be far tougher when you have kids to take care of
- You had access to government programs such as Pell Grants, which many people would deride as being "government handouts"
- As a youth, you were wise enough to avoid crimes that would disqualify you from educational/employment opportunities in your adult life
Stories like yours are wonderful in inspiring people to make something of themselves. But it doesn't change the fact that we as a society should do more to help people who are caught in a poverty trap, especially because of poor decisions made when they were teenagers. Just because someone ran a 4-minute-mile doesn't mean it's reasonable to expect everyone to do so.
> Anyway, people think I'm 'privileged' now because I earn a lot of money, but they have no idea that I used to sleep on the floor and eat in soup lines.
As always in such discussions, privilege is on a spectrum and has many dimensions. To give an obvious example, even as a youth, you were privileged to be an American citizen, with all the rights, assistance and opportunities it entails. If you were born in the same circumstances in Mexico or Congo, you would find yourself facing a far different outcome.