This is why conservatives side with the 1%

[nxylas]

Because they think they *are* the 1%, and that being part of the 99% is a "lifestyle choice". The new conservative meme that you've probabaly already been mailed by your reactionary Republican uncle:



That's nice dear. Get back to me in 20 years' time when you no longer have access to cheap student accommodation, your savings have been wiped out by an illness or other catastrophic event, and you're still working in those three minimum wage jobs because all the good jobs have been outsourced to India by that same 1% whose culpability you doggedly refuse to acknowledge.

[Arctic Dave]

1. I likened them to the lady on the Geico commercial who can't understand why her

key won't open the rolls royce as her husband looks at her then their mini-van. She is deluded into thinking she is rich, just like they are.

As for making it through college on two scholarships that paid for 90% of your tuition is about about as rare as unicorn sightings. You are correct on that, you are not the 99%. Everyone else is up to their eyes in debt paying for college. I am going to assume this person is part of some organization that is footing their bills because I couldn't see someone getting a 3.8 is getting a free ride.

[MedicalAdmin]

24. Yah - I wonder what militant wealth christian theology group ...

... is fronting this person.

A 3.8 aint gonna get you a 90% ride. Period. I had a 4.0 and a valuable skill (music scholarship) and I didn't have a full ride. I also took 3 degrees concurrently and did fundraising for the University Leadership Council for other scholarships. If there had been more money in them there hills for academics I would have known about it.

I had scholarships and grants from the university, my credit union, my high school, the lions club, the rotary club, etc.... And I am one of the 99%. On the other hand I seem to have known that I was on hallucinogenics when I was taking them. That picture is much like drunk dialing, I think.

[truedelphi]

2. Your comment pretty well sums it up - get back to us in

Twenty or thirty years.

See how much you will enjoy being laid off while in your mid forties or fifties.

How your various meds cost more than you make.

How employers will not hire you as your insurance premiums are exorbitantly high. Which is a needed measure as how else can Big Insurers pay their Execs some 700 million a year?

[rbnyc]

3. I'm in a huge argument on fb right now about this f'in' picture.

I really can't stand this boot straps bullshit.

[Hestia]

5. I responded to it thusly - Chris Rock has a fantastic definition of the 1%

Shaquille O'Neal is rich, the man who writes his check is wealthy.

[abelenkpe]

7. Awwwww I feel sorry for the girl who posted this

Truly. She just doesn't get it. She has health insurance because HCR will let her stay on her parents plan. She got a scholarship, a rare thing these days as most have disappeared in favor of low cost loans. She already has been the beneficiary of hand outs. The world is stacked against her. When she's wasted her twenties and thirties and finds she still can't save enough to afford a home or to start a family because she supported policies that don't support her tell her to write another letter and send it back in time to herself.

[matt819]

4. I don't buy it

A. Show your face.
B. Prove it.

Let's say that his salary comes to $240 before taxes and round that down to $200. So, $800/month. Of course, this coward doesn't note where he lives, so a "cheap" apartment could mean anything. Let's say he can get away with $400 and that this includes utilities

Income: $800
Apt: $400
Leaves $400 for food, school, etc.

I don't know what a single person can get away with for food, but let's assume $50/week. We're now down to $200 for everything else. Gas, insurance, clothing, books. He says he doesn't have an iphone or ipad, etc. Says nothing about a computer, which is required in most schools. Who paid for that?

Who's paying for this clown's tuition? State schools are now in the neighborhood of $20,000 or more (emphasis on "more"). That would be the socialized state schools, mind you, but that's another issue. And if he's in a private school? If he's doing it without scholarships, then he's part of the 1%, or pretty damn close. Otherwise, how's he paying for it?

3.8 GPA? Okay, let's give him that. Does he have a job lined up? What does he plan to do? Who's paying for his health insurance? Does he have a chronic illness? Has he ever had an accident or medical condition that required treatment? And if he doesn't have a job lined up, what's the plan? Is he magically going to rise into the 1% realm?

You get the idea. This photo is nothing more or less than an outright lie.

[trackfan]

11. I think it's about as real as the Brooks Brothers Riot.

It has the distinct smell of GOP generated propaganda.

[JaneQPublic]

15. Particularly fishy: 2 scholarships from "decent" grades in high school...

...that now pay 90 percent of tuition?

Most people attending college at any given moment got at least "decent" grades in high school, but they are certainly not all getting 90 percent of college comped through scholarships.

I know friends with college-age kids who got nearly straight A's in high school and could only get loans but no scholarships.

Yep, this is as phony as GWBush's military record... and probably originating from the same source.

[pacalo]

13. I like how everything except the fingers & the self-righteous message is blacked out.

If her face were visible, that might cause people who know her to blow the whistle.

[PDittie]

25. Right. There's a reason we aren't seeing his/her face

like we do the 99%ers. And that's because this is fiction.

[PETRUS]

6. And they don't realize or care

...that they have little to no voice in policy. If democracy is important to them, this should matter.

[renate]

8. this story would have been more believable 20 or 30 years ago

In fact, this is probably how a lot of us or our parents got through school. It was possible back then, when education was a national priority so scholarships were more available and before a year's tuition and fees cost as much as a car.

Now, even this person who supposedly is graduating debt-free is going to run into a brick wall when they actually go looking for a job.

[JaneQPublic]

9. We don't even have to wait 20 years.

How about immediately after he/she graduates college? That 30 hr/wk job better expand to full time, because that is likely to be the best option available... unless the manager cuts him/her loose to hire someone who isn't always looking to change the schedule to allow time for job interviews.

[Taverner]

10. Yep.

[SomethingFishy]

12. It's because they are selfish and greedy. Simple as that.

Those "53%"'ers are either too brainwashed or too young to know that they are part of the 99%. And that's being nice. I could also say that anyone who gets al;l self righteous about a country that forced them to have to work 2 or 3 jobs to support their family is a fucking idiot.

[unblock]

14. the author's presumption is that the rules are fair and anyone who complains must have failed.

but of course the fact that the rules AREN'T fair is the very reason for the protests.

and there are plenty of people who have been hard-working and prudent and still are in dire straits.
meanwhile, there have been plenty of 1%-ers who have been lazy and imprudent and they're still doing just peachy.

[sinkingfeeling]

21. Must be Herman Cain! "If you're not rich, it's your own fault".

[nxylas]

27. Cain has at least earned the right to be a douche

I hate the bootstraps bullshit too, but I find it easier to swallow coming from someone like Cain, who came from humble beginnings and actually has built a successful business largely through his own efforts, than from the likes of Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh who, as the saying goes, were born on third base and think they scored a home run.

[Yavin4]

22. EXACTLY!!! Never Question The System. It's Always The Individual.

The statement implies that the system is just and fair, and it's the individual that is flawed.

That right wing bullshit has dogged me all of my life.

[mikeytherat]

16. Cool story, bro.

mikey_the_rat

[catbyte]

17. Cowardly face hider

[SheilaT]

18. Actually, it is possible to

attend some state schools with scholarships that will pay much of the tuition, and if you work 30 hours a week, you can get through school with little or no debt. Not all state schools run 20 grand a year, and many states offer pretty decent scholarships to in-state residents who have good grades and/or test scores.

New Mexico Tech (the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology) is one that automatically gives merit money to everyone, instate or out of state residents, who meet certain requirements. I know because my older son was accepted there, and until the acceptance I had no idea about the merit money.

But, and this is a huge but, not everyone goes to such schools, not every school offers good deals. But I must say that I've been astonished for the last couple of decades that anyone at all would undertake huge debt just for college.

However, the person posting the image is quite naive, and even without college debt, even with a decent job, that person IS still in the 99%.

[pacalo]

19. Mystery solved, with the help of modern technology...

[sinkingfeeling]

20. Yep, they just don't get it. This one believes that in a year or two they'll be in that great 1%,

pulling in a $ million or so and having assets in the millions.

[JaneQPublic]

23. When I taught Freshman Comp, most of my students were convinced...

...that within a year of graduation they'd be pulling in a salary larger than a full professor at the university (and probably larger than their father).

That was 25 years ago. Today, I'm guessing only the most privileged and entitled Young Republicans still believe they'll be earning that much right off the bat.

[On the Road]

26. I Have to Question That Picture

A similar picture which appeared a couple of weeks ago used the word 'uni' for university, which is UK slang, despite the fact that it indicated the writer immigrated to the US.

This one specifies a "moderately priced, in-state public university", so perhaps it was modified. Although it does use a bar on the seven, which is not typical for the US.

I also agree with some of the sentiments. Free riders with a sense of entitlement offend a lot people, especially those who are self-reliant and do not instinctively try to work the system. It's like the character Frank Grimes in the Simpson's, who is shocked how Homer Simpson can have such a good life while being incompetent, although he is struggling despite being motivated and more capable.

On the other hand, while the sign singles out self-reliance as a virtue, very little of it refers to self-reliance. (In fact, the scholarship is accepting largesse from a benefactor.) I don't doubt that a good student would get a scholarship, but I do doubt a 90% scholarship at the kind of university described based on 'decent grades.'

Instead, what it seems to be championing is a radical choice to take on no debt at all. This is a completely different issue -- people working the welfare or unemployment systems can be completely debt free, while medical students can (and usually have to) go deeply into debt on the way to acquiring that valuable MD degree.

To the extent that the ad is effective, it depends on the assumptions that:

--the OWS protests are being driven by personal indebtedness (they are clearly NOT)
--debt is due to living beyond your means, which in turn is due to a sense of entitlement (sometimes true), and
--the financial industries are spectators simply meeting their unreasonable customers' needs.

To effectively counter this sign, whether it's real or not, it helps to point the subtle bait-and-switch going on here.