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Comment by NhanH | Hacker News Reader

The topic itself is worth discussing. However I'm not actually sure why this specific article was the one being picked for a second chance.

It's one long life story (stories?), and there is nothing in it supporting either the title or subtitle. Yes, her upbringing was bad, but I wanted to know what happened personally to her after graduating that she's where she is now. Or even better: what exactly could have helped her (by government or society) getting to where she want to be in life? Those details are no where to be found.

And I'd like to hear others' opinion on this, but I don't consider her writing to be good. Maybe if she want to be a writer, that has something to do with it?

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However I'm not actually sure why this specific article was the one being picked for a second chance.

You must be new to the geekosphere, so let me answer that for you: People like to white knight visible minorities and women while also pretending that everyone can do what they like for a living and that the rich should foot the bill for it.

Or, I dunno, maybe it makes for an enjoyable read.

My thoughts exactly. I thought it was going to be another "I got a liberal arts degree and now I'm outraged that I can't find a job; upward mobility isn't real!" article, but it wasn't even that... :/

Yeah I agree. It is more difficult to leave poverty if you are born into it, but the choice of the word "myth" was a poor one. I also would have liked to hear more about her degrees. What were they in? Why were they not useful in today's current world? I think this could have gave us much greater insight. Also, the making fun of healthy foods turned me off a little because I always choose healthier options if they are available. "Food" in America is often not really food, so if you can afford better food I wouldn't blame you for it. But it did help visualize the character in her story. Her writing was good. Just would have liked to get more answers to said questions so we can figure out more about how we can fix education to make it not such a struggle for people to move upwardly.

She doesn't mention what her degrees are in, which I'm quite sure is deliberate: she doesn't want a bunch of people writing to say, "well, of course you are picking kale, you studied {creative writing | English literature | etc.}"

Her proposition is that having any degree entitles one to a middle class lifestyle.

This is an archaic notion based on the economic situation in the US before the 1960s, before the government began subsidizing mass higher education. Bachelor's degrees were expensive and rare then, so that actually worked.

Now, we have millions of people with non-marketable bachelor's degrees picking kale for a living, because nobody told them that the economic situation has shifted radically since then and bachelor's degrees don't guarantee you a nice job anymore.

> I don't consider her writing to be good.

Her writing would be fine for long-form fiction. She gives details, images, feelings. It doesn't work as well in an article like this. But if she writes novels, she could turn out to be good. (Or she could not be. Or she could be good and still not make any money. Novels aren't a guaranteed path to riches, even if you're good.)

I'm also curious what 2 degrees she has that prevent her from getting a job in her field.

I did a quick "site:linkedin.com" google search.

Bachelors in English and Masters in writing from not the best colleges.

"from not the best colleges"

You do realise that it's a considerable achievement for someone from a working class background to go to third level at all, right?

According to her linkedin ...

Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Creative Writing, from California Institute of the Arts

B.A., English from Temple University

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