retire@40
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2004
- Messages
- 2,670
Jay_Gatsby said:I agree with this perspective. However, I'm going to take things a step further. Although it's probably very un-PC for me to say this, a substantial chunk of the poverty and misery experienced by people -- whether in this country or around the world -- is partially due to poor choices by the "victims" themselves. There's no question that people are taken advantage of by other people, but that doesn't make them "victims" per se. Rather, every bad experience can be taken as a hard lesson and learned from, instead of lamented.
Everyone on this board has had economic hardships in one form or another, bad bosses, poor work environments, low pay, etc... Did we look to the Government or other people to solve our problems? For the most part, I'm assuming we didn't. Perhaps we took advantage of temporary assistance, but that was only until we got back on our feet. We certainly didn't live on food stamps, welfare, etc...for years, and simultaneously complain about the lack of jobs. If jobs were not readily available where we lived, we fought like hell to get one of the few that was, or moved to another city where there were jobs. Likewise, when money was tight, we tightened our belts instead of racking up credit card debt to maintain a lifestyle that we couldn't or could no longer afford.
Perhaps Darwin's theory of evolution applies to human society as well as the animal kingdom?
I agree. If my government protects me from foreign invaders and domestic guerillas, I would say it's done the bulk of it's job, and for the most part, I can take care of the rest.
Too many people complain about what they don't have, what the government doesn't do for them, and endless reasons why they can't better themselves. It's mostly due to laziness and a lack of respect for themselves.