Heres my take on it, I am paying off federal student loans that I took out to assist with tuition and living expenses, these were in addition to the pell grants that I received for being poor despite working part time while going to school. When I finally graduated I was married with 3 children (no satellite with TIVO, no cable, used cars, no motorcycles, 1 bicycle, inexpensive furniture, clothes from Walmart (other than my interview clothes) and the minimum plan cell phone with no internet or texting, and a fairly new laptop for class work). I worked part time jobs with no benefits and had everything from crappy self insurance to crappy school insurance to medicaid. Medicaid was by far the best which makes me wonder what more people expect from it.
Now I am working for less than 60K a year, my wife stays home with the kids, I have good insurance (still not up to medicaid quality) that my employer and I both pay for. This is part of having a degree in a field that has many job opportunities. I graduated from a state university that had reasonable tuition for instate students, I had decent grades considering working part time and helping with the kids. I was able to volunteer in community activities and help out friends when I had time. If I could do it I do not see why anyone else would not be able to do it. Find a career that pays well, and get the experience, training, or education needed to get a job in that field. US history is full of stories of people who have seized opportunities to get rich or at least well off. I can't say that I am wealthy, or that I ever will be in my current position, but I am able to put food on the table, gas in the cars (same ones I had in college), and take a small vacation every now and then. Someday I hope to buy some land and build a house.
I am not defending insurance companies, politicians, or lawyers, I just wonder why we feel entitled to all sorts of things (education, health care, flood insurance, national defense, etc) with no contributions on our part. I have never seen any thing in the Constitution or Bill of Rights about a universal "right" to eduction or health care or flood insurance (for people who build in a hole next to the ocean) or mudslide insurance (for people who build on the side of hills) or a minimum wage that employers must pay. There is also nothing about income tax, but thats a totally different discussion.
What this all boils down to is that if I could do it with the current system, what is stopping the other guy/gal from doing it? I made it despite having a family while going to school and minimum income. While going to school I learned trades that helped increase my pay, though nothing like the pay increase a little piece of paper got me, and relied on the government and others as little as possible. The only thng I attribute it to is that I never had anyone telling me that it was someone else's fault or responsibility to make sure that my family would be taken care of. Maybe it is heartless or cruel to expect others to do what I did, but I know that I had it tons easier than the generations before me. My father started out school going for the degree that I got and wasn't able to keep up with the material and was asked to change majors. I was blessed with professors who worked with me and gave me chances to succeed and get past the initial learning curve problems. For the record my father has been successful in the career field that he ended up in though I think he uses almost nothing from the degree he earned.
So yeah, the world and th US included have problems, but name a country that does as much as the US to offers so many opportunities to make a living and succeed. And this does not mean a country that hands things out, I define success as being able to be comfortably self sufficient. If your definition is different than mine, then state it and quantify it.
There, I am off of my soap box now
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