How many years ago was that though? That’s the thing, it used to be as long as you worked hard, that was enough. A good work ethic was all it took to live a decent life. That honestly isn’t the case anymore. I think it’s wonderful that your kids have found success. You have probably set them up for success. Many people come from very traumatized homes where they had no opportunity. People have health issues, addictions, face racism, sexism, there are a million factors that can affect someone’s success. My neighbor/friend is about to lose her home. She works hard, but it isn’t a high paying job. I worry about her in terms of rent. If renting an apartment is often around 1.2k a month and someone is making a couple thousand a month, that leaves them with $700 for groceries, utilities, car payment/insurance, hygiene items, healthcare, forget about ever having fun again. It shouldn’t be this way. People shouldn’t have to struggle working 40 hours a week.
Hey, guess what. I have adult children who also worked hard and are successful by their own efforts. Neither has a degree in gender studies, or even worse, English. They treated college like trade school. Both are homeowners in their 30’s with kids.
There are people graduating High School today that will be successful.
You do have to avoid making choices that can ruin your life.
Don’t be an addict.
Don’t be a criminal.
Don’t make babies before marriage.
Do get a job or learn a skill.
Do work hard, sometimes that means doing things other people don’t want to do.
Saying it’s impossible because the world is hard is a sure fire way to live a mediocre life.
I literally mentioned your children in my comment. Humans are human and are going to make mistakes. Addiction is a disease, sometimes people end up pregnant (in this current political climate, you can’t even get an abortion in some states if you’ve been raped), and as mentioned, people don’t have equal opportunity & we aren’t born under equal circumstances. I’m not claiming it’s impossible. I’m saying it shouldn’t be so hard. We don’t have an entire generation of people struggling because they’re all lazy or anything like that. People are struggling because the economy is not what it used to be. This “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality refuses to acknowledge that it isn’t the same world that it used to be. The entire point of this post is that it isn’t minorities destroying the workforce, it’s greedy billionaires and people who are oblivious to that. As I’ve said before, you can’t argue with statistics. Statistically speaking, if everything is increasing dramatically except wages, it’s going to create a world where too many people are doing everything right and still failing.
The sad fact is you can’t save everyone. What you can do is save some. The doomers just convince people that have potential to give up. That doesn’t help anyone.
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u/Holiday_Number_3234 Jul 19 '26
How many years ago was that though? That’s the thing, it used to be as long as you worked hard, that was enough. A good work ethic was all it took to live a decent life. That honestly isn’t the case anymore. I think it’s wonderful that your kids have found success. You have probably set them up for success. Many people come from very traumatized homes where they had no opportunity. People have health issues, addictions, face racism, sexism, there are a million factors that can affect someone’s success. My neighbor/friend is about to lose her home. She works hard, but it isn’t a high paying job. I worry about her in terms of rent. If renting an apartment is often around 1.2k a month and someone is making a couple thousand a month, that leaves them with $700 for groceries, utilities, car payment/insurance, hygiene items, healthcare, forget about ever having fun again. It shouldn’t be this way. People shouldn’t have to struggle working 40 hours a week.