(10-29-2013 03:31 PM)JMUDunk Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:01 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:59 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:52 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Growing up poor changes your brain.

Just an example I stumbled upon today.

I grew up poor and I'm making 6 figures right now.

Go to your nearest inner city school and see if you think many of those kids have an honest chance.

I've worked in the inner city schools, well county but Va is a little different in how we call places, not a lot of "Cities". But regardless, k-6th grade. You wanna know what their biggest impediment to success was? it wasn't the teachers, Arlington County Va has some outstanding, very well paid Teachers. My own mother for one.

It wasn't a lack of resources, generally wealthy county with pockets of ugliness. It wasn't the administration there were good people running the show as well, perhaps not the blue chippers, but not all of us can be the top dog.

Nope. It wasn't any of that. Or them. it most certainly wasn't the students, these young happy, plenty capable little kids.

Their biggest impediment, to a kid- little Eric. Gizmo, Monique, Alex, Calli, Benito, or any of the other hundreds of kids, simply put- their biggest obstacle to success in their lives? The parents. Or more often parent.

Yep, the ones that would show up half dressed, often times in a robe and slippers at 2:00 o'clock, hair all a mess to chastise a staff member for some alleged grievance. The time I was screamed at, in the open hallway and bodily threatened in front of an entire hallway of students for "You made my Daughter sit out (of whatever activity it was) and she said it was because you said she was a N!@@#&".

True story. And it wasn't a singular incident by any means.

Now, some here, will once again try to dismiss real life experiences as "stories". Try to diminish their worth as perhaps anecdotal. But at some time, even a trained "scientist" draws upon that which is clearly right before their eyes.

That this isn't hypothesis, theory or that voo-doo that you do. It's fact. It's life. It's not running a "model" or crunching endless numbers.

Perhaps if more of our well meaning social engineers actually spent some real time, of their real lives, in the very surroundings they purport to be experts on, they wouldn't screw things up so magnificently each and every time. Sometimes the simple answers are really, just simple.

Just a thought.

The point stands.

Wether it's the schools, the parents, or whom or whatever else. What chance does a kid in that environment have?

(10-29-2013 03:04 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:59 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:52 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Growing up poor changes your brain.

Just an example I stumbled upon today.

I grew up poor and I'm making 6 figures right now.*

How does it feel to be an outlier?

Great. I'll put an asterisk by that for you.

*Grew up in 2 parent household. Mom was too sick to work. I also had a lot of health problems growing up. Dad wasn't educated but had a good work ethic. I didn't know we didn't have anything until later in life when I was old enough to understand how bad things really were. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were in similar situations so I didn't really know any better. More than anything my old man had pride and wouldn't accept help from anybody. That was the most valuable lesson I ever learned from him, many times the hard way.

Sadly the destruction of the family shoulders most of the blame for today's societal problems. I agree that many the kids in the inner city schools don't have much of a chance but it goes right back to the family dynamic. I grew up playing b-ball with a lot of those kids.

(10-29-2013 03:34 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:04 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:59 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:52 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Growing up poor changes your brain.

Just an example I stumbled upon today.

I grew up poor and I'm making 6 figures right now.*

How does it feel to be an outlier?

Great. I'll put an asterisk by that for you.

*Grew up in 2 parent household. Mom was too sick to work. I also had a lot of health problems growing up. Dad wasn't educated but had a good work ethic. I didn't know we didn't have anything until later in life when I was old enough to understand how bad things really were. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were in similar situations so I didn't really know any better. More than anything my old man had pride and wouldn't accept help from anybody.

Sadly the destruction of the family shoulders most of the blame for today's societal problems. I agree that many the kids in the inner city schools don't have much of a chance but it goes right back to the family dynamic. I grew up playing b-ball with a lot of those kids.

Statistics would back you up on that. There are a lot more single parent families in poor areas.

dmac - your sig is pretty illuminating about your politics.

(10-29-2013 03:42 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Statistics would back you up on that. There are a lot more single parent families in poor areas.

In no small part because much of our assistance "penalizes" couples

(10-29-2013 04:36 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:42 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Statistics would back you up on that. There are a lot more single parent families in poor areas.

In no small part because much of our assistance "penalizes" couples

That was by design. Decades ago, that strategy was formulated.

(10-29-2013 04:36 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  dmac - your sig is pretty illuminating about your politics.

Maybe it should say Republican Jesus rather than just Jesus.

(10-29-2013 03:33 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:31 PM)JMUDunk Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:01 PM)HeartOfDixie Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:59 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:52 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Growing up poor changes your brain.

Just an example I stumbled upon today.

I grew up poor and I'm making 6 figures right now.

Go to your nearest inner city school and see if you think many of those kids have an honest chance.

I've worked in the inner city schools, well county but Va is a little different in how we call places, not a lot of "Cities". But regardless, k-6th grade. You wanna know what their biggest impediment to success was? it wasn't the teachers, Arlington County Va has some outstanding, very well paid Teachers. My own mother for one.

It wasn't a lack of resources, generally wealthy county with pockets of ugliness. It wasn't the administration there were good people running the show as well, perhaps not the blue chippers, but not all of us can be the top dog.

Nope. It wasn't any of that. Or them. it most certainly wasn't the students, these young happy, plenty capable little kids.

Their biggest impediment, to a kid- little Eric. Gizmo, Monique, Alex, Calli, Benito, or any of the other hundreds of kids, simply put- their biggest obstacle to success in their lives? The parents. Or more often parent.

Yep, the ones that would show up half dressed, often times in a robe and slippers at 2:00 o'clock, hair all a mess to chastise a staff member for some alleged grievance. The time I was screamed at, in the open hallway and bodily threatened in front of an entire hallway of students for "You made my Daughter sit out (of whatever activity it was) and she said it was because you said she was a N!@@#&".

True story. And it wasn't a singular incident by any means.

Now, some here, will once again try to dismiss real life experiences as "stories". Try to diminish their worth as perhaps anecdotal. But at some time, even a trained "scientist" draws upon that which is clearly right before their eyes.

That this isn't hypothesis, theory or that voo-doo that you do. It's fact. It's life. It's not running a "model" or crunching endless numbers.

Perhaps if more of our well meaning social engineers actually spent some real time, of their real lives, in the very surroundings they purport to be experts on, they wouldn't screw things up so magnificently each and every time. Sometimes the simple answers are really, just simple.

Just a thought.

The point stands.

Wether it's the schools, the parents, or whom or whatever else. What chance does a kid in that environment have?

They have a tough way to go. But if the home life is the problem it's not like you can remove them from their bio parent (unless the neglect is life-threatening.) We used to pull kids out of bad environments and send them to boys or girls homes but these institutions aren't around anymore because Dems in particular believe it is always best for kids to stay with their bio parents.

(10-29-2013 03:34 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:04 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:59 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:52 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Growing up poor changes your brain.

Just an example I stumbled upon today.

I grew up poor and I'm making 6 figures right now.*

How does it feel to be an outlier?

Great. I'll put an asterisk by that for you.

*Grew up in 2 parent household. Mom was too sick to work. I also had a lot of health problems growing up. Dad wasn't educated but had a good work ethic. I didn't know we didn't have anything until later in life when I was old enough to understand how bad things really were. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were in similar situations so I didn't really know any better. More than anything my old man had pride and wouldn't accept help from anybody. That was the most valuable lesson I ever learned from him, many times the hard way.

Sadly the destruction of the family shoulders most of the blame for today's societal problems. I agree that many the kids in the inner city schools don't have much of a chance but it goes right back to the family dynamic. I grew up playing b-ball with a lot of those kids.

You can thank democratic LBJ's Great Society for the breakdown in the family structure. Once he removed the need for a man to provide the floodgates were opened for the single parent epidemic we have today.
He got what he wanted from the plan...generations of dependent democratic voters.

(10-29-2013 07:33 PM)mptnstr@44 Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:34 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 03:04 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:59 PM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-29-2013 02:52 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  Growing up poor changes your brain.

Just an example I stumbled upon today.

I grew up poor and I'm making 6 figures right now.*

How does it feel to be an outlier?

Great. I'll put an asterisk by that for you.

*Grew up in 2 parent household. Mom was too sick to work. I also had a lot of health problems growing up. Dad wasn't educated but had a good work ethic. I didn't know we didn't have anything until later in life when I was old enough to understand how bad things really were. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were in similar situations so I didn't really know any better. More than anything my old man had pride and wouldn't accept help from anybody. That was the most valuable lesson I ever learned from him, many times the hard way.

Sadly the destruction of the family shoulders most of the blame for today's societal problems. I agree that many the kids in the inner city schools don't have much of a chance but it goes right back to the family dynamic. I grew up playing b-ball with a lot of those kids.

You can thank democratic LBJ's Great Society for the breakdown in the family structure. Once he removed the need for a man to provide the floodgates were opened for the single parent epidemic we have today.
He got what he wanted from the plan...generations of dependent democratic voters.

I'm not very familiar with the Great Society. Can you explain to me why it lead to a breakdown in the family structure? I want to know because it seems to me like you just need someone to blame. When you make it sound like the Democrats are the grand architects of society's demise, you're making them look a lot more intelligent and tactical than they are.

(10-29-2013 09:28 PM)dmacfour Wrote:  I'm not very familiar with the Great Society. Can you explain to me why it lead to a breakdown in the family structure? I want to know because it seems to me like you just need someone to blame. When you make it sound like the Democrats are the grand architects of society's demise, you're making them look a lot more intelligent and tactical than they are.

Obviously you are not familiar.

How it led to a breakdown in the family structure is that it paid substantially greater benefits to broken families. If an 18 year old single girl got knocked up, she got more money from the government if daddy left her than daddy could make if he stayed. So the economic incentive for daddy to abandon his child was clear. Daddy abandoning mommy and child leads to broken family structure. The incidence of this skyrocketed after the GS was enacted.

Here's a good discussion of why our poor stay poor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rls8H6MktrA

http://www.nationalaffairs.com/doclib/20...ynihan.pdf

"How the Great Society Destroyed the American Family," written by none other than Daniel Patrick Moynihan, DEMOCRATIC senator, ambassador, member of four different presidential administrations beginning with JFK.

I guess some folks think they have a right to decide how much someone can make in the open marketplace. Do what you want. Go ahead and meddle with the system. Be very careful that someone decides how much YOU should make. Those old unintended consequences can be a real *****.