YOUR BOOTSTRAP QUOTIENT!

[UdoKier]

Poll question: YOUR BOOTSTRAP QUOTIENT!

YOUR BOOTSTRAP QUOTIENT!

Which best describes you?

(by student loans I also mean pell grants)



I've noticed on other boards that whenever I mention support for unions or an increase in the minimum wage, they always say "get off welfare, shower and shave and get a job!" or "why don't you just start a business?"

Of course I have a degree, and a decent job, but I know how hard it can be. Apparently, they can't imagine that ANYONE above the poverty line could possibly give a crap about the poor. And they also seem to think they they made it with no help from anyone. Of course, we all know how unusual THAT is in real life.

How about you?

[UdoKier]

1. kick.

nt

[UdoKier]

2. kick.

[MostlyLurks]

3. Great article re: myth of the "self made man".

http://www.sweetjesusihatebilloreilly.com/column2.html

[MsTryska]

10. the Westbury section of Levittown?

those two areas are nowhere near each other. well they are on the same island, but that's a stretch....

[EstimatedProphet]

4. What's the difference between 4 and 5?

I put down 4 before I saw 5, but IMO they're the same.

[AmerDem]

5. no

5 states "assistance" that would mean, welfare, food stamps, etc. At least that is how I took it.

[ObaMania]

6. Born low middle class..

.. no higher education or special training and am now mid-upper middle class working in IT field.

[skygazer]

7. I'm an "other"

I was born into a middle class family and married and went to work after high school. My marriage collapsed and I ended up incredibly poor, scraping by on whatever lousy job I could get as well as any form of help (welfare, food stamps, WIC, commodity food giveaways, you name it). I remember one winter when I had to cut up an old bureau to burn in my wood stove.

I eventually crawled my way out of it with the help of a construction job that had a job training program that I enrolled in. This is an argument that I have with my own daughter all the time - my daughter who benefited from all those programs as well as school lunch (which was the only food she got some days), after school programs, educational programs, etc. She insists that most people don't "need" it, that they should be "responsible for their own decisions." I was so angry at her the first time she threw that at me, I wrote her a six page letter telling her off!

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Born Middle Class. No Help. Doing OK

My dad was a milkman and my mom was a SAHM. I was an only child until age 11, then my sister was born. But, 2 years later my aunt and uncle died, and my parents raised their kids (2 and 4 years younger than me.) So, we had 5 kids from the time i was almost 14.

My parents started me saving for college when i was 8. I got partial academic scholarships, and though i went to a private uni, the prices hadn't skyrocketed yet. So, with the money i had, and working while in school, and two jobs during the summer, i didn't have to take out any loans.

I now make a very respectable living, and with my wife's teacher pay, we are DINK's with few worries. The last thing that did, however, was make us tax-hating republicans. I pay my taxes, without complaint, and without any expectation of a "What's in it for me".

Didn't rely on gov't, or charity, to get where i am now, and that experience has made me realize that people who are not in good situations need as much help as we, as a community, can provide. Not having to get, makes me MORE prone to give. I really don't get the opposite mentality.
The Professor

[MostlyLurks]

11. But, you did and do get help

Professor,

I respect what you've done with your life, so please don't take this the wrong way, but I think your post's title is wrong (or maybe you were being sarcastic, in which case hit the "reply" option and tell me I'm stupid).

You did get help: "I got partial academic scholarships". Those may not have been "state sponsored" or "governmental", but they do qualify as outside help (meritous awards, but help nonetheless).

Additionally you mention that your wife is a teacher. In all likelihood, a significant amount of money is being contributed, via the school system in which she works, to the state employee's retirement fund, which she will later draw from. For example, here in Ohio every public school teacher has an amount equal to 14% of their yearly salary contributed to the teacher's retirement system (OHSTRS). This is on top of their actual salary. So when you say you have few worries, you can thank a system that helps ensure your wife's retirement.

As I say, I'm not belittling that, or the fact that you earned scholarships and your wife is a public servant. But to say that you received no help isn't really the whole story.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

9. My husband and I both born lower-middle class

My husband and I went to college and got computer engineering degrees. We graduated Dec 2001, right around the time when our economy was really crappy, and it hasn't gotten much better since. Now we are still lower-middle class, and we owe about $30,000 worth of college debt plus $8,000 for a car loan. We'll probably be racking up even more significant debt in the near future. My husband is planning on going back to school for a different field (medical related) as it seems to be pretty difficult getting a entry level job in any computer/technology related field. I guess we don't have anything to loose, so he might as well go for it while our family is still young.