patrick.net

Of course, people with more money make similar choices, and many get into debt, it’s just that they often have a larger financial cushion (higher paying jobs).

Ultimately I think it is pretty hard to change out of the socioeconomic stratum into which one is born.

Well said. I am not an apologist for poor people who make stupid financial decisions and then attempt to shift the consequences for those decisions onto other people. But to make the blanket statement that "all poor people are lazy and stupid" is patently false and inherently elitist.

Sadly, the "by your bootstraps" self-reliance/hard-work ethos that used to be rewarded and helped to created the middle class in decades past is simply not working as well today. Many studies are showing that socio-economic mobility is just not working as well as it used to --or working only in one direction: down. Class stratification in the U.S. seems to be getting more and more rigid by the day. I hope this trend can eventually be reversed, but the current signs are not encouraging.

SQT, can you fix my italics above? (the 2nd & 3rd paragraphs should also be italicized) Thanks.

New thread: The “I really miss ‘America’s Overvalued Real Estate’” thread

I hope this trend can eventually be reversed, but the current signs are not encouraging.

HARM, it will not reverse. Class stratification is just a natural thing.

@Joe Schmoe,

I feel your pain --really. Every day I remain here, I must remind myself of all those lovely SoCal "intangibles", like completely unaffordable housing, somewhat less unaffordable sub-standard rentals, perma-gridlock traffic, some of the worst overcrowding in the nation, miserably hot & smoggy summers, mediocre salaries, 10 million uninvited "guests" shrilly demanding their "rights' to my tax money, voting rights, subsidized education, housing, etc. etc.

Eventually something will have to go, and that "something" will probably be me. :-)

not forgetting the 'baby bribe' of $4000 a baby from the oz govt, ajh... a last ditch attempt to 'populate or perish', which is not working too well as a strategy...

property councils always worry about population going down too, they love immigration, etc, because it's more renters for their members to exploit and get rich from. they worry about declining population.

She has been unable to get a job after she took a break to start a family. She has been called to interviews, where people have asked her how she can put in the long hours required when she has a small child (Yes I know the question is illegal, but that’s beside the point).

once again, dysfunctions of the market, and modern life. women are now having kids in their late 30s, 40s and even 50s, well into the danger zone for problems. how easily people are brainwashed and denatured into the modest and humble requirements of capitalism!

I'm with SFWoman, there's many flavors of poor, and having been "poor" for much of my life, I'm in no position to look down on the poor, any of them. I haven't walked in their shoes, I don't know what motivates their decisions. However, I am interested in ending subsidies to the poor, especially the subsidies that encourage them to stay poor and ignorant.

DS,

As I understand it, the OZ baby bribe is partially motivated by racism. The center right government wants the whites to breed to resist the brown hordes from the north.

It is pretty incredible though, OZ has good schools, high living standards, and a good job situation. And the government still need to bribe its citizens to have kids.

I think a lot of the American middle class would be more open to having kids, if they had what your government gives Aussies.