Reply to Article: Why Can't Allyson Get Ahead?

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[quote=Anonymous]She's struggling to get ahead because of a confluences of factors--some out of her control and other completely within her control.

Out of her control:

1.  The value of labor (especially unskilled) has been getting hammered on both the demand and supply side of the equation. As the labor pool expanded (supply side), the value of labor went down.  As employers wanted more and more specialized skills (demand side), the value of unskilled labor went down.  The above poster is absolutely right many anti-abortion people are nowhere to be found when it comes to helping this woman, but many of the people who want a safety net to help this woman are unwilling to consider reducing the supply of unskilled labor in this country by enforcing immigration laws. The single best thing we could do for unskilled labor is reduce the supply of unskilled labor.

2.  Access to the social safety net has been made unnecessarily hard in some respects.

3.  Government has flooded the market with college degrees at all levels and eroded the value of a degree (especially her associate's degree).

4.  The education machine has emphasized college to her for decades but then let her get a relatively low-demand degree in family and consumer sciences. Even a simple realignment to a four-year education degree would have set her up much better.

In her control:

1.  Getting pregnant. She minimized the risk of it, but she didn't eliminate the risk.

2.  Choosing the early childhood degree of whatever UCF calls it.

3.  Leaving the father behind in Kentucky. There is no mention of abuse in the article, so going by what we have, we know that (a) she wanted to work and (b) she wasn't happy in Kentucky.   For (a), even if her net pay wasn't much at first, working and gaining new skills would have been worth it in the long run. For (b), leaving a stable home for her son that provided food, shelter, and access to two parents seems like a lot to give up in order to pursue her happiness. I'm not suggesting that home was ideal for her, but it seems from the outside looking in that it was absolutely better for her and her son than the circumstances she find's herself in currently. Not to mention, she probably would have been in a better position to improve her education had she stayed with the father.

4.  It doesn't seem she's done anything to pursue child support from the father. [/quote]

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