Found this on Brian Leiter’s website: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
Instead of saying ‘I am the 99%’ at the end, it should say: ‘I should’ve been more responsible.’
Does anyone else get the feeling of class warfare here, or is it just me?
Yeah, I smell lots of class war. And honestly, it’s about time the working class fought back. It’s painful getting beat up all the time and not returning a punch.
Frankly, no matter what your political affiliations, ideologies, or whatever, you should probably expect more protests, more occupations, and probably a few riots in the coming months. A lot of people, maybe not even a majority, but a lot of people have their backs against the wall and nowhere to turn. It’s only reasonable to assume that some people are going to strike back.
As someone with a chronic illness I feel pretty threatened all the time. In a supposedly ‘civil’ society should I have to work three times as hard because I was born doubly unlucky being sick and poor? Hell no. Why should I have to forego things that are considered standard because I was born unlucky?
It’s not that people aren’t willing to help each other out in situations like this. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of people would support the idea of a free health collective where locals pay regular (voluntary) dues or something else. The problem is that all of our money is being funelled elsewhere, to paying off our debt, to paying the corrupt healthcare infrastructure that already exists, to paying rent, to paying for parking, paying for driving on someone else’s road, paying for breathing someone else’s air.
You can disagree all you want, and you might even be right. But at this point whatever reasonable arguments you have might as well be told to an oncoming tidal wave.
Answer’s in the question, sweetheart.
What you’re saying is the equivalent of “why should I not be able to drive myself around just because I was born without eyes?” It’s ironic, but only in the last generation or two has the world become so wealthy that people are actually arrogant enough to ask why they should have to live without something they want.
That “something I want” happens to be medication that could cost $20,000 a year without insurance and that I’ll die a long painful death without.
Edit: But hey, if I’m lucky and can get insurance I can expect to pay about $5,000 a year*, just 1/4 of my (expected) yearly income (in five years, that is)! I guess for that 1/4 of the year I won’t eat or pay rent.
*source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2009-09-15-insurance-costs_N.htm
As someone with a chronic illness I feel pretty threatened all the time. In a supposedly ‘civil’ society should I have to work three times as hard because I was born doubly unlucky being sick and poor? Hell no. Why should I have to forego things that are considered standard because I was born unlucky?
You shouldn’t have to forgoe anything. If you see something you despise or that that causes something you love or some part of you to suffer wobble… push it - there is no reason not to. Anyone trying to tell you otherwise is trying to sell you something.
I will say this as a bit of a “moral” hazard though, there is no “real” solution in any of these mass politcal movements, rightism, leftism, libertarianism, etc…the end result of all these things is mostly madness if one takes them as “things in themselves” - they are tools to achieve a desired end for a task at hand, and that is all. They will all bury you at their expense on the first chance they get if you turn your back on them. Don’t take them to seriously, they’re just tools to use. lol, “I use the enemy, I use anarchy”
As for your chronic illness - I’m in the medical field, and know people throughout it if you live in the Midwest and really need help (I mean super desperate) trying to figure out how to deal with your Medical and money problems PM me, and I’ll see if there is anything I can do…maybe direct you to a good clinic, or show how to nickle and dime on insurance, or whatever
Vive, I really appreciate the offer. For now, things seem to be okay. There may be a time in the future I PM you, however.
Oh you mean medication that wasn’t available to anyone, even if they paid $20 million a year less than 2 decades ago? Somehow you’re just entitled to that huh? You don’t deserve to die a long painful death, but they did eh?
Just like the blind man is “entitled” to sight, right? Who are you to tell the man without eyes he can’t drive his own car?
Some of the gems:
If you do the math, she got pregnant after she got laid off.
Congrats, dude, you racked up $135k pointless debt. Whose fault is that?
Aaaand inflation was caused byyyyy…
Alright, then congrats on the debt
- You don’t have to go to college. 2) Knowledge is free 3) People spending their lives teaching you for free is called slavery
Congrats. I moved from Europe. You have 0 need to have $100k in debt if you go to community college.
How is this in any way an argument for their side?
Bleh.
Time for people to take some opposition pics!
Funny how they mention inflation (as if that’s not the government’s fault), but don’t mention the most blindingly obvious matter when it comes to scraping by day-to-day: how much of your income and spending is corroded by taxation. I sure noticed it when I was broke.
So far it seems like the moral of this story is that college can be a big fat waste of money. 
^ +1
With the above people, I think there’s at least an element of being unwilling to accept responsiblity for one’s actions. I went to college and took on some student loans - not as much as some, but more than others. I wasn’t coerced in any way to either go to college or take on student loans to help pay for college. To the contrary, those were choices that I and I alone made. The responsibility for them lies entirely with me.
People can look at their situations in life in one of two ways. One way is that they can be thankful for what they do have, for it could always be (much) worse. The other way is that they can be bitter and resentful that they don’t have even more. It seems all too easy for many (maybe most) people to take what they have for granted, thus ignoring any possibilities that exist beneath it.
There’s also the issue of expectations vs. reality. We’re all displeased or get upset to some extent when reality doesn’t meet our expectations. But does that mean we’ve necessarily lost anything? Hardly. It certainly doesn’t mean that in the case when we expect to get more than what we already have. Not getting something is entirely different from losing something. This isn’t rocket surgery, is it?
What in the world is this supposed to mean? “Forego things that are considered standard” - as if anyone is entitled to them!
It could all go away in an instant. Everything you do have, including your life - poof. Gone. Try to keep that in mind.
rocket surgery
Sounds dangerous.
Oh, come on, people, have some empathy, will ya? The “every-man-for-himself” mentality that oozes out in this thread is exactly what people misunderstand libertarianism for.
So some of these people have accrued student loans. Yes, they made the choice to go to college and apply for these loans. But their teachers, family, the media, banks and politicians encouraged them to. Not all of them wasted their time and money on obviously unmarketable degrees. And how come student loans are the only kind of debt you cannot default on? This is clearly a rigged system set up for the benefit of the college and banking cartels. Stop blaming the poor saps that got suckered in.
Others have severe medical conditions that they can’t afford to get treated. Why? Well, for starters, government severely restricts the market for medical services with their licensing requirements (and of course, many licenses have to be earned in the restricted medical school market - one rigged system feeds the others), it artificially increases the price of drugs with its patent laws and it destroyed the voluntary associations that made health care affordable for the working man a century ago. Libertarians should be staunchly opposed to the current US medical system and communicate this clearly.
Then there’s people who lost their homes. Yes, they couldn’t pay the mortgage, so it’s technically not their homes anymore. But the current mess in the housing market is the making of Federal Reserve and FedGov policy. The system screwed these people over.
And the reason why many can’t find jobs is, of course, the economic hardship that is a direct result of the credit-induced boom-and-bust cycle.
You see, instead of blaming these people for a situation they largely had no control over, how about offering them some hope that’s not based on the traditional leftist solutions? Or do you really think not staining yourselves with the problems of the ailing middle class for the sake of ideological purity will advance your position?
Absolutely. All of the people above racked up debt of their own accord and now can’t afford the lifestyle they want.
People in this country are, from pretty much day one, sold the idea that if they just go to college they will have an easy life with a good job. So these suckers take out huge loans to pay for their ticket onto easy street only to find out that the grass is only greener on the other side if you make it so. Since they are over-coddled into a permanently infantile mentality they end up crying about it on some lousy website instead of actually doing something to fix their issues.
One of the worst effects of the State, in my opinion, is that it actually does make crying about it and stealing from other people the easier route.
@Sphairon, I don’t disagree with your indictment of the State in most of their problems, but I don’t have much empathy for people whose first response is to steal to fix their problems. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the ultimate goal of their movement.
Oh, come on, Sphairon, have some understanding, will ya? That is, kindly point out where I oozed out the “every-man-for-himself” mentality, because I don’t see it. (I can’t speak for others, of course.)
My understanding is that it’s only federal student loans that you can’t default on - which should indeed tell you something.
In any case, my point was that no one else made their choices for them. At best, it’s debatable as to whether they’ve been defrauded by anyone.
It’s very hard to convince anyone that free enterprise will make things easier for them when 1) he sees the current system as “free enterprise”, or 2) he sees “free enterprise” as how things were in the past, which presumably were even worse than how things are today.
What do you mean by “screwed over”? (I don’t mean to imply any necessary disagreement with that question.)
Perhaps. There’s also the issue of getting degrees which turned out to be unmarketable.
Where’s the hope for them in saying that what we advocate would require them to take even more responsibility than they’re used to taking?
Note: I’m somewhat playing Devil’s Advocate here.
Is that their first response? I’ve seen a select few that openly advocate sticking it to “the rich” and one jolly public sector employee afraid of “capitalism”, but most contributors just seem really desperate for change. Historically, this has usually meant more leftism. But it need not be that way again.
I’m eternally grateful to my dad for having constantly told me, from about the time I was five years old, that life isn’t fair.
Something else my parents constantly told me: I earn what I work for. Things in life aren’t guaranteed to be handed to me. Either I can wait around for them to be handed to me, which might take forever, or I can go out and (try to) earn them.
Getting a college degree doesn’t guarantee getting a job. That was certainly clear to me when I was a senior in college. So that’s why I went out and worked at getting a job lined up, hopefully before I graduated. You could say that some of it was luck, sure, but nothing would’ve happened had I not taken any initiative.
Of course, there are times when I’m lazy and procrastinate about things. But I never blame the consequences of that on anyone but myself. I made a choice, and now I have to live with it.