Your poor it must be your fault

reply to post by wantsome


much love to you and to ALL that is my bro


i pray for abundance for all and world peace..


if we can stop the immoral wars and put that energy into education. health care and ending poverty we shall create a utopia


imagine it, make it happen!

thank you

I grew up just a little north of Ten Mile rd, just east of Hayes, two miles north of Detroit. I used to work on 8 Mile and Gratiot and would take the bus a lot of the times. I went to college downtown at WSU and worked in Hamtramck, I took every back way to work and school and saw all the Eastside war zones on a daily basis. I also remember when things were better in the 70s.

I'm so glad I left the area almost 20 years ago, and yes I'm still poor, and it is my fault, but I live on my own property in the woods and I'm not bothered by Detroit anymore. I was one of the rats that left that sinking ship, and I'm glad I did.

reply to post by zeeon


First I would like to say that your response was one of the best I have ever received.

Someone has to provide for those not doing anything? Is it fair for those working to provide for those who don't?

Not fair but humanity should always take care of others.

Would you do that?

Yes... If we used 1/10 of the money we spent on killing each other with weapons and instead used that money to support the lazy arse people of the world it would still provide the basics that every human deserves. It is not the lack of resourses that is the problem it is the misuse of them that has caused the probelms of the world. We need to set the bar high and never go below it for any human. I believe that the non-workers/lazy people of the world would weed themseleves out over generations and not just want the basics and work towards a higher goal and want better things. One other thing is if you choose to only receive the basics you are only allowed to have one child then you must be clipped/snipped and punished for bringing more lazy people into the world.... don't let them breed future bums. We need to make education avaiable to everyone so the each generation takes a step up the social ladder.

We need to get money out of politics, move to a flat tax, and slow down the military complex.
Just these 3 items would change society on a massive level and lower crime because money would start flowing to the bottom again. IMO corporations have ruined the United States and until we bust up the system we will continiue to have larger gaps between the top and the bottom.

Hello OP,

I occasionally visit this site to look for interesting stuff to go on and read about when I can't sleep. A good, story, a good report, something worth looking up later. I had no plans to engage with commenting on this site before I read your post. I'm a 33 yr old English Schizophrenic. Hopefully former Schizophrenic, as I've been off my pills for two years (with medical supervision) to see if I can move forward.I also suffer from depression and OCD.

Your frustrations are pretty much the same frustrations I've always had, and still face.

I'm a european, and so we have a different attitude to welfare than lots of US citizens. In Europe we won piece by piece our freedoms, and welfare system, bit by bit after a historical struggle as we emerged from the feudal system. This is especially true if you are British. Ordinary people were doing the work which kept the country going, fighting in wars (keeping various empires going) and being treated like peasants for all our struggle and patriotism. The historical struggle and context is very different in the US, I often notice perfectly rational people disagreeing strongly on this issue (where they might otherwise agree) because of coming from a different cultural context.

I write this as I see some of the responses to your post, and a bit because of my reply to you. Left or right, the notion of a safety net is important to any of our western democracies for two reasons. Some of the huge opponents of the welfare system think that it is premised on the notion that it's just for freeloaders. Our economic organisation (and mutual success) in the west is based on a certain system of economic organisation which, in theory, is the most effective and should benefit us all. But, it does rely on the fact that some of us will have to staff the factories, clean toilets, wash dishes, etc. It is a bit premised on the fact that we can't all win. There will never be a country where everyone successfully runs their own business. There's a bit of a kickback, 'sorry, but this is for the greater good element' to the welfare state. The second important aspect to it is that, say anyone commenting on this thread has an idea which may improve the wellbeing of us all (e.g. a way of making the internet 7 times better) why take the risk if it may not work and you lose everything? We'd all benefit it it works, but the guy with the idea won't take the risk (and why should he or she) if those they dearly love may end up with nothing. It's an argument for economic effectiveness. This is by no means a full argument.

I only wrote the above as I saw some of the replies to your thread. Just to say to you, 'screw them'!

Our situation is slightly different. It's about how to you get back to the world and allow it to let us contribute what we have to give whilst it doesn't understand our position (and actually holds extreme prejudice towards us)? It's about self expression, how will society let us contribute?

I'm extremely confident and able, after devoting so much time to recovery. I have a reasonably good law degree (after a huge struggle to fix myself to get there). But my CV doesn't bear this out, so it's difficult to get any job.

I've been volunteering for a while, helping out people on the fringes of society whilst staffing an office. Building up office and employment skills in difficult circumstances. Despite my feeling politically fine with welfare, it was a way to remedy the very human problem of wanting to feel useful. Nothing wrong with welfare, the problem is how to be a full human being? How to contribute. With my medical history it wasn't my fault I couldn't get a job, but I still felt guilty about not working despite all the above. I found it by building up my employment skills whilst looking after my fellow man (and woman) for free. It made me much happier, and will eventually make me employable I hope.

Fixing yourself, getting out of the misery mental illness causes, is a bit like digging out of a mine collapse with a spoon. I eventually got there. If it's just getting to stability, the task is just as hard. There's some truth in the "if you seek you will find" stuff, but you need to be resolute and take the pain and the weariness of it. I've no doubt you can get there, it's just collecting yourself, being assured you have the balls to take it and setting out. Some days I get angry, because I know the deck is stacked against me. Somedays, I remember just who I am and what I was before getting ill and I like the extra challenge. If society's gonna say these jobs are not for you, then look for the other ones you might not have considered; writing, music, art. There's a certain freedom when you know that may be you best bet. You write well, why not a blog? I just mean to say mate, it's all a pain in the arse. There's a bit of you that knows you can do it, and is up for the challenge, if you look for it. Oh, and for people writing 'boo hoo' to you. They have no idea!

reply to post by Misbah

And really, Why do rich people tend to go up to high buildings to kill themselves, I thought money bought happiness, Then why would a billionaire kill himself? That wouldn't make any sense at all.

Take some time, Look at the poor children of Africa or Gaza. If you really consider yourself poor, I think it's a mental issue you're having. You can't possibly be the poorest person on this earth, I think it's love that you're missing, not money.

Yes, you can be poor and happy.

A simple life, life does not to be so complicate.

reply to post by wantsome

Yes I have seen people make it out poverty I've witnessed. For every 1 person that makes it I could name 20 that didn't.

It's true, I know people with college educations who are working at restaurants, many.

There are not any jobs around here.

reply to post by wantsome


Joining the military is the quickest way out of poverty in my opinion...you get great pay/benefits, and take out some jobs skills and discipline. It was the greatest decision of my life. And if you don't like it you can always leave at the end of your contract and go into something else...

On top of that if you are deployed...you will be making even more money with nothing to spend it on...your bank account will rapidly increase and by the time you get out...you'll have a nice cushion.

There are options for the poor...and with the internet...you have access to knowledge to improve yourself.

I make great money in what I do but I still to this day take online classes even with already having a BA in science. Don't ever stop improving yourself and you are more likely to have some good luck.

reply to post by wantsome


We have a couple of different situations here...

The handicap should be taken care of. Can you control your disability at all? The handicap can still achieve and do great things. Some of our greatest achievers had your problem. In the cases where a person's handicap prevents them frm working then of course the Government should help.

Living week to week, many do this and even the smallest hiccup in their life totally screws them over. Like you friend whose house burned down... No insurance? No friends or relatives? Their house burns down and they also lost their jobs too? The question is why are they living their whole lives week to week? I see the fault lies still with the parents here. Bad things happen to everyone.....

Bad parents, what can anyone say... Many people who have kids should never have them. Their lives are total ruin and they still pump out the kids. Just because a person grows up poor doesn't mean their life is set in stone to live that way forever. Who do we blame here? Once again this is on the family, and the family's fault.

I blame the family in all cases but handicap, so people will reap their rewards based on what they do with their lives, and when people make poor decisions one after another it will affect how they live....

reply to post by wantsome


For everyone that makes it, a lot don't. Not everybody has the same opportunities or talents. Some people also don't understand that having experienced horrific things, changes a person.

But then again, we don't like losers and therefor it must be their own fault.

I am twenty seven years of age. I have only high school education to fall back on, and currently work for a family business. People hear the words "family business" and either think mob (which makes me chuckle some, I can tell you) or think "Christ, hark at him! Must be worth a few". In actual fact, my family is poorer than dirt. My sister and I will not gain property through the deaths of our parents, because our father disowned us after leaving our mother. The split made it necessary to sell the house we used to live in (which was a dive, but at least had a roof). We now rent the flat above the shop which my mother runs.

We own nothing of any particular worth. We have no assets in the business other than the stock and the fittings and fixtures. None the less we are continuing to run this business, despite some of the worst economic conditions that our area has ever seen, and despite the fact that neither my mother, nor myself are getting paid even close to the minimum wage, for our efforts. How we make the rent is a matter of some confusion amongst all of us, but we muddle through somehow.

My mother works harder than any person I have ever met, despite the fact that she is in her sixties, and by rights, ought to have been allowed to retire by now, save for the idiotic situation in the financial sector. Both she and I put more effort into just surviving, than any banker, lawyer, or CEO would even know how to BEGIN to expend. When I put food in my own mouth, I chew, and I mean damned slowly, because from the year dot, I was never sure when I was going to be eating again. Thats despite having at least one parent that loved me, and knew about responsibility.

You can work DAMNED hard, and get no where what so ever is what I am saying. The only difference, that is the difference between someone who escapes the doldrums, who earns the bread in vast amounts, is not confidence, but psychopathy. The difference in reality, is that we, the people who strive for life, are not prepared to tread someone into the dust to improve our lives, whereas your common or garden self made man, will have crapped on everything he climbed past on the ladder of life, and grinned ear to ear about it all the while. We are almost certainly a better class of scum than that.

reply to post by QueenofWeird

Some people also don't understand that having experienced horrific things, changes a person.

Totally agree with that. Walk a mile in their shoes.

reply to post by wantsome


Thanks for having the courage to share your story. It's true, Americans have been trained to believe that EVERYONE has the same opportunities. Well, now that the economy has been destroyed and looted by bankers, more people are waking up to how things really work. Keep your head high ... peace...

Originally posted by TrueBrit

You can work DAMNED hard, and get no where what so ever is what I am saying. The only difference, that is the difference between someone who escapes the doldrums, who earns the bread in vast amounts, is not confidence, but psychopathy. The difference in reality, is that we, the people who strive for life, are not prepared to tread someone into the dust to improve our lives, whereas your common or garden self made man, will have crapped on everything he climbed past on the ladder of life, and grinned ear to ear about it all the while. We are almost certainly a better class of scum than that.

Damn.

reply to post by wantsome


My mother had five kids. We have lived in campgrounds, trailers, homeless shelters, and houses.

When my family first moved to Ohio back '99 we were homeless and living out of a shelter. My mother, stepfather, and all five of us children simply had to make due. We had a storage unit we kept our belongings in, we would check in at the local homeless shelter in Columbus to be counted for the food line and to make sure we had a place to sleep at the local church.

After we ate, everyone went to the church to sleep. We had to be up at 5 am, so my family would pack into the station wagon and we'd park right in front of our storage unit and all 7 of us would get a few more hours sleep before the day started.

My parents had to get five kids ready for school out of a station wagon. I was in 8th grade at the time, we did this for a couple of months in the winter. We finally got a government house in the ghetto. I remember being 14, I had to walk to the elementary school about two blocks from my house to pick up my younger brothers and sisters. We were the only white kids in the area. I had to fend off 5th graders from beating up my younger brothers daily. Not to mention the fact that those same 5th graders would threaten to get their older siblings to come kick my arse as well.

All in all, pretty fun times.

Meanwhile, my parents worked their butts off and got us into our own home on a better side of town in the suburbs before high school started. Not saying that being poor is the fault of the poor, but the individual has the choice to pull themselves out of a bad situation.

reply to post by wantsome


I grew up on Jefferson. I left the first chance I got. I never looked back.
If you want out bad enough, you'll get out. All told it took me more than 10 years to get off the ground but I did it.

Originally posted by mythots
Stepen Hawkins

reply to post by wantsome


My daddy wah a crack head too! I am very successful, but I guess it did have allot to do with luck or at least things which seemed to guide / force me away from choices to which I am not sure I would have made the right decisions with.

In my mind we have two types of people, do's and don'ts. Do's keep trying and don'ts, do not try at all. I am not speaking of getting out of bed and heading to work every day, but rather enterprising etc.. You know heading out to to the 7-11 for your shift even if done for 30+ years will not bring you too much reward. Certainly disabilities are one thing, but to just sit and bitch is BS!

Opportunity is everywhere! It can even be manufactured at will! You gotta work for it, and somtimes you gotta work very hard for it!

You want to work? I can suggest a few things right now that will see a pretty instant change in that 10K per year.

Some can and some can' t friend but if you can work, dont let inaction keep you in the dirt! Plus just answering to yourself / being self reliant has a way of calming mental stuff.

I know maybe this sounds narcissistic to you, but it is not. It is just to say you can better yourself friend, and I bet you can do it in a manner which caters to your schizophrenia which can ease your suffering. I just assume you are a functioning individual based on the fact that you can communicate just fine. If you are not I am sorry for that!

Originally posted by SilentKoala
I've known a lot of people who have had similar upbringings and come from similar backgrounds, who have fought against the odds and have become successful. You just have to decide to not let the past define you. The future hasn't been written yet; sure you have limited choices, but the ones you do have are yours for the taking.

You just have to "decide" to overcome a mental illness which has no proven effective treatment?

GTFO with that idiocy.

Conceptually you are correct, that much of life is what you make it. Re-framing and re-defining things can help a long way toward overcoming them. And some people do make it past adversity. But understand that just maybe those persons had something else which the other guy didn't, which helped them overcome that adversity.

Not everyone is the same, and regarding the mental illness aspect of the OP, I find your response to be insulting and dismissive. Until you've lived through that kind of thing, you have no idea so perhaps read up instead of being judgmental and taking on a superior attitude toward the mentally ill. (Which I might note just contributes to the problem.)

I'm tired of hearing people too stupid to see all the angles act like they know the whole game plan, just because they did well in life, or read about some other folks who did.

You know, it seems that a common thread in a lot of responses is how crapped on the "poor" are...I think the bigger issue is how the "poor" feel entitled to the middle class way of life (cellphones, decent car/home, tv/cable, computer, etc.) and that it is the government's or society as a whole's responsibility to provide them these things. Guess what! If you are poor, then you don't get these things! I grew up poor by most standards and lived in a tiny apartment wearing second-hand clothes playing with whatever toys my mom could afford to buy me while eating a lot of rice/discounted (old!) meat...in other words, we lived within our means! I have worked my butt off and am now in the upper middle class but it seems that the vast majority of "poor" people I encounter have the same smartphone that I do, drive a comparable car, wear comparable clothes, eat at the same places, etc. Anyone in this thread that considers themselves poor or disadvantaged needs to realize that unless you're on a public computer in a location with free internet, you obviously aren't so poor you can't afford a computer/internet and most likely have a lot of other creature comforts that cost money that you supposedly don't have enough of.

reply to post by wantsome


It's because poverty is the new slavery. You have generations of poor people just like you had generations of slaves. And there really is no way out. There is no American dream. You're told to go to college, get yourself into debt, and you'll come out of poverty. In reality, only a third of graduates actually find solid work after they earn their degree. University is just another way to keep people enslaved. Most grads work at Walmart for making minimum wage.