Microblog Memes

You seem to have neglected the most important one: privilege.

Millions of Americans are stuck in a cycle of generational poverty. Really difficult to manage even the first one when you're grinding to just put food on the table daily, and that's the reality for 46 million Americans right now.

This ultra-priviliged, ignorant "you just gotta grind for it" attitude is literally what this meme is making fun of. Congrats on being the butt of the joke and doubling down on it.

Somehow I highly doubt your mom spent 1/3 of her pre-tax income to send you to private school. And based on how much she paid for it, I assume you went to private school in the 80s. The median family wage these days can't afford rent, much less $15-20,000 a year private schools, which by the way is what they cost this century. And if my assumption is correct about you growing up in the 80s, that $15,000 a year is the equivalent of nearly $59,000 a year today - higher than the median family wage, so not quite dirt poor.

I mean, good for you, and you're not entirely wrong, but you've got them in the wrong order. Luck is number 1, because the rest flow from that (education, connections, etc)

People place WAY too much of their own effort (which is important), and not enough on luck.

As long as you're very cognisant that for many, many people, the cycle of poverty is unbreakable to not fault of their own.

If yes, then, I'm happy for you and you should still feel proud of yourself.

Education is number one? The daughter of my wife's housemate has a PhD and she's been out of work for two years. That also sounds like need.

Guess she's just lacking your luck. Maybe that part is more important than you think.

Luck favors the nepo babys

This ia fucking awesome but we're talking about the Working Class and the Ownership Class. You're working class. And congratulations that your efforts and strategy has paid off for you!

1. Education

I really hope my student loan debt gets the memo that it was supposed to make me wealthy.

Education was the best decision I've ever made for myself (because there's so much more value to education than just a career/future paycheck), but I went into it knowing that the trade off would be decades of financial sacrifice and probably hardship. The hope is that it would get me a middle to upper middle class salary, but I'm not sure anyone anticipates higher education to be even one of many keys to real financial success.

I think my wife and I did well because we teamed up early. Had we tried solo I think we would have failed.

It really sucks that marriage is now a financial necessity in the US. Some of us are ace/aro and will never get married or live with a partner. But even for those who aren't, if someone wants to be single or just not move in with their partner, then they should be able to have that choice. I have no idea how I will ever live alone. The thought of living with roommates for the rest of my life turns my stomach. Introverts and neurodivergents should also be able to live in a situation that works for us. One of the worst parts of the housing crisis is compromising what makes a house a home - security, comfort, having your own space. It should be more than just paying to be indoors and having to live in uncomfortable, shady situations just to make that happen.

Need: Hunger is s great motivator. It also gives you this every present fear that if you take your foot off the gas, you'll be hungry again.

I hope this is a joke. What a sad way to look at life if not.

It's not about the school itself, it's about the elitism of the schools and the connections that the insular communities allow. It has little to do with the quality of the education, so sending everyone to private schools wouldn't change much except as to create more religious indoctrination

Credentialism is why. That is, the overinflation of the importance of credentials to keep belief in a meritocracy alive. A few years ago, when unemployment was higher, I learned that AmLaw 100 firms (i.e. the biggest U.S. law firms) were requiring applicants for runner positions to have a bachelor’s degree. A runner literally just schleps documents around between offices, a job that normally would be a good way to integrate people with intellectual deficits into society, but they required a bachelor’s as a useful screening tool for the hiring process.

If we send more people to schools to get the better credentials, it doesn’t create more room at the top of the social pyramid. It just makes the requirements for entry more exclusive. And that benefits the kids born wealthy, because they can afford to get that MD-PhD to get in the door.

Because it will stop being "private", which in this case is a blanket term for elite schools. If everyone goes to elite schools, by definition it's not elite anymore.

I went to a private elementary school. Not only did it not help me in the adult world, it didn't even help me in middle school and high school other than put me in GT classes I shouldn't have been put in, make me totally unprepared for class sizes (there were 11 kids in my sixth grade class), etc. Oh, and they had a no homework policy which meant I could never get used to doing homework and by high school just stopped doing it.

On top of all that, I had the same teacher for all six years who both mentally and, once, sexually abused me and encouraged other kids to bully me.

Not one of those things would have happened if I had just gone to a normal public school. Those, for all their faults, prepare kids to be adults.

But nepo babies never have to be adults.

So maybe we shouldn't send more kids to private schools. We need adults.