Comment by youngButEager | Hacker News Reader

Comment by youngButEager | Hacker News Reader

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It's a Leftist recruitment article to get people feeling sorry for the poor who, SUPPOSEDLY, according to this article -- unlike most other humans, the poor are incapable of making good decisions, only bad ones.

I was living on the street as a teenager after making bad decisions and having my parents abandon me.

How did I start making good decisions (finally) ?

I quickly grew to HATE being poor.

That hatred of poverty helped me ask "okay, how do I get out of this, living on the street and having no prospects?"

I had independent means within 20 years (in my 30s) after that hatred of my poverty forced me to put more effort into what I did every day.

I was still making some bad decisions for a few years but over time I became very practiced at knowing what to choose (go to college? go in the military? get away from all my current acquaintances?)

Within a year of my peak of hating poverty I stumbled on the idea of having goals. I read "Your Erroneous Zones" by Wayne Dyer.

20 years later I had independent means (no boss, good income).

HATRED OF POVERTY. People who stay poor lack that.

THEIR RESPONSIBILITY. No one else's.

That article is a recruitment tool for Leftists, as in "we should feel sorry for the poor, it's not their fault."

Life will hold you individually responsible for YOUR DECISIONS.

So will the criminal justice system.

Articles like this one try to convince us that some people should NOT be held responsible for their behavior.

WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.

What was your IQ before you were out o the streets? Average grades? Were you exposed to hallucinogens such as DMT or LSD?

The outcome in your life largely depends on the opportunities available to you, whether it is perceived as you creating those or not.

I realize that having initiative is important, but you're implying a level of determinacy in life that doesn't exist.

I see the consequences of my decisions, large and small, good and bad, every day. I made those decisions, and so the consequences are to my credit and my fault.

I don't subscribe to the fatalistic point of view that my path in life is predetermined. Not for a minute.

I'm not advocating determinism in the slightest. I'm saying that the GP is pretending as if exogenous factors and entities are ineffective.

Hating the experience of poverty is surely a fine thing. Hating other people for being poor, though, is sad. And rejecting empathy for those suffering because you might have to change your political views borders on obscene.

He didn't say that he hated other people for being poor. He said he "hated being poor'.

You'll note that I explicitly acknowledge that he hated being poor, and I do it in my first sentence. It's true that he didn't explicitly say that he hated poor people. But given what he wrote, how would you characterize his feelings toward the people who are still poor?

You're still quite obviously making plenty of bad decisions.

Strive to move up; but help those behind you.

You're still quite obviously making plenty of bad decisions.

Or he's making great decisions. Because your rational is just based on your own political ideology.

He's using all caps in an online comment... Is that an ideological thing?

Actually, you have no idea what my rationale is. If you are curious, you should ask.

> I was living on the street as a teenager after making bad decisions and having my parents abandon me.

This doesn't sound like you spent your childhood poor with immediate family who've spent your life in poverty. Your comment is not constructive, sorry

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