People who are born on third yet act like they worked "so hard" for something

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04/03/2023 04:49

Subject: Re:People who are born on third yet act like they worked "so hard" for something

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Anonymous

PP who said life isn’t fair is right. Everyone has challenges/obstacles to overcome, and they aren’t always obvious. Poverty is certainly a disadvantage, but so are learning disabilities, physical disabilities, mental illness, disease, abuse, neglect, addiction, etc.

There’s also a question of perspective. I consider myself to have been incredibly blessed. I had a loving, supportive family. Thanks to my parents hard work, we had what I considered a comfortable upper middle class lifestyle, although by DCUM standards we would have probably been considered lower middle class. The professional class of doctors and lawyers that DCUM tends to consider upper middle class we would have considered wealthy. My parents worked grueling jobs at the post office. My father worked years on the night shift, while my mother worked days lifting heavy trays of mail that were a physical strain for a very petite woman. They filled a multitude of stenopads with the notes they left each other on the kitchen table.

Meanwhile, people living in this country, in this time, are unbelievably advantaged compared to the multitude of humanity through the ages. Yes, we have hunger, homelessness, healthcare shortages, and other problems associated with poverty, but it has ever been thus. Our country also has supports (however insufficient) to try to address these needs, which have not always been available. Meanwhile, there is food to be had (despite egg shortages and COVID supply disruptions, we are not experiencing famine). Racism is an area we still struggle with, but we don’t live with genocide. While you may disagree with politicians, or even the system in general, you don’t have to worry about “disappearing” if you displease the current leadership. While I’ll be the first to admit our public schools have problems, the fact that we have public schools is pretty amazing when most people through history (and even many today) haven’t had the opportunity to access education, and in many cases it’s been directly prohibited.

Moreover, the average person, lives with luxuries the kings and emperors of old would have envied. Hot and cold running water, flush toilets, furnaces and even air conditioners, stoves that you turn on with a knob, electric lights, cars, microwaves, phones, televisions, etc.

We can’t make life fair. Even if we confiscated everyone’s money and reallocated it, how do you do that fairly? Do you apportion it by individual or family? What about those who have needs making it harder for them to earn money but giving them greater expenses. How do you balance those who are careful/lucky with those who aren’t. We’ve plenty of examples where even financial “experts” and institutions make huge financial blunders. Certainly individuals are not immune from their own financial mishaps, possibly as victims of the aforementioned institutions.

It’s a flawed world, made up of flawed individuals, and fate/luck/divine providence (whatever you want to call it) introduces a random element that we are utterly incapable of controlling. There is no fair. However, compared to most of the world today or through history, modern Americans aren’t starting on 3rd, we already won the game just by being here. If you’re still not convinced, try asking the immigrants who risk their lives to come here, starting with absolute nothing, knowing that their lack of legal status means that even if they make it here, they’ll have less opportunity and more risk than citizens, but still come by the thousands.

Yes, we should work together to tackle the many problems we have, and to help those who need help. But “fair“ is unachievable and a distraction from the real work to be done. There will always be someone with “more” and someone with “less” whatever yardstick you use, and they’re all inherently flawed. Comparisons only build resentment and don’t fix anything. Let’s focus on fixing what we can to actually help people.