We think just because someone is poor that they must be doing something awful to deserve their lot in life. It couldn't be that they have been dealt a bad hand in life. No it must be that they are all lazy and high on drugs all the time.
This is not a rant against capitalism. I am firm believer that with the right oversight (and yes my liberal/progressive friends there is such a thing as too many regulations) that capitalism is the best economic system that we have. I will admit that it has its flaws, like the fact it offers only a marginal chance for advancement up the social ladder. But until the time somebody develops a better system, this is the one we got.
For those that have been born into a working class family, your means of changing classes is almost nil. Sure ever once and a while somebody does manage to go from working class to middle class, but these instances are very few. If you were to closely examines these individuals lives you will see that they managed to hit upon every break in life. Not everybody in the working class is that fortunate.
Let's examine the life of a working person, shall we. From the very beginning they start off behind the eight ball. Because healthy food is more expensive than non-healthy food they lack the proper nutrients that a growing brain needs, a brain that devours a large amount of our caloric intake. Their education is subpar at best, because we refuse to properly fund the schools that are in the most need. Instead we starve them of the funds they need to provide top notch teacher and adequate supplies which causes these schools to fail to meet the educational standards. Which in turn justifies further slashing of these schools budgets.
Even if we did properly fund these schools the working class kids that attend these schools are often time distracted by the fact that they are too hungry to concentrate during the lessons. That or they are too tired because they are forced to get up so damn early and spend so much time on a bus to go to and from a school miles and miles away from their homes. Is it any wonder that so many of these kids have no hope for their future. The system has abandoned them, what do they have to look forward to? Why not dropout of school, the education the are receiving is never going to do them any good. Might as well start on the career flipping burgers or scrubbing toilets now, that is where they are going to end up anyways.
For those determined to make it graduation day, what is there really out there for them beyond this point? A college education, even with financial aid is just out of their reach. And with out that degree they only have a slightly larger job pool that they can pick from than their former classmates who have dropped out. They could always try the military to get the money for college, but then again not everybody is cutout for military service.
So what, as a society, do we do? We turn up our noses and our backs at these individuals. Instead of looking out for our neighbors, we view them with distrust. We have contempt for those who never really had a chance in this life, while at the saw time we worship the false idols of the rich and famous. Instead of giving a few bucks to somebody that could put it back into the system by buying bread, we gleefully hand that money over to cooperation, professional athletes and movie stars who have no need for it.
Something is truly fucked up with our vision. We see those who have traveled down the hardest road in life as wicked and vile, just because they wish to be given the same opportunities to succeed in this, and for their children not to know the shame they have felt. Yet when a company like Nike only pays their work (non-American labor might I add) so little that they could only afford to pay their rent or eat, but not both, we can't wait to hit the mall to buy their overpriced merchandise.
It is not those bellow you that struggle everyday to eek out a living for themselves that is the problem. It is those from above that would harden your heart against our less fortunate brothers and sisters that are the true monsters.
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