On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 12:56 PM, Bryan Sant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Let me fist sincerly apologize for pursuing a discipline that > maximizes the earning potential for me and my family. I agree that > people who work hard, study, apply themselves and are ultimately > rewarded by our evil, greed-driven, capitalist system are despicable > dogs and should have all that they've worked hard for stripped away > from them (by force if necessary), and distributed to Liberal Arts > majors and no-ambition professional welfare recipients (but I repeat > myself) nation wide.
I've been mostly just skimming this thread in mild amusement, but this really pisses me off. I spent a good number of my younger years living in a trailer that you could actually see daylight through some of the wall joints. I went to a high school that was _in no way_ a preparation for BYU or any kind of financially productive life. These were not choices, but necessities brought about my location and hard knocks. Stuart is absolutely correct, and they idea that "choosing to get an education and a decent-paying job" is the only thing between a comfortably well off family and a poor one is total crap. For 80% of the people in my hometown there is no choice. They live there because they can survive there. If they moved away from where they can grow a garden, kill their own meat, drive (and repeatedly fix) a 30-40 year old car etc... they would literally have _no_ way to earn a living. There is no "study, work hard, blah blah" for these people. Where are they going to study something that can make a difference? Where are they going to learn something to which they can apply themselves that will earn them a decent living? Not in the school that does less to encourage personal initiative than I realized when I went there. And just think, if my dad hadn't been in the Army when I was young, I, like many of the people I went to school with, wouldn't even know just exactly I wasn't able to choose to do. I have crooked fingers because I knew my parents didn't have the money to pay for me to go to the doctor when I broke them. About 75% of the time when I get a cold, I also end up with some sort of upper respiratory infection because my nose has been broken 6 times and, you guessed it, I knew my parents didn't have the money to pay for me to go to the doctor and get it set when I broke it. When I would get seriously injured, my parents would ask me if I wanted to drive 20 miles to the nearest hospital, and every time I'd opt for krazy glue and/or duct tape because I knew, as early as age 12, that my parents couldn't afford doctor bills. I had friends in the Army who thought it was weird as heck to be able to go to sick call when they were hurt or sick and not have to pay through the nose for it. The military is filled with people who are there because it's a choice between a life like the one I managed to leave behind and one where you get 3 meals a day, health care, clothes to wear, and a sense of accomplishment. Having access to decent education, health care, or any other measure of quality of life is not a choice for more people than we would like to recognize. So, Bryan, and anyone else with the same idea, be glad you were able to choose a "discipline that maximizes the earning potential for me and my family", and be glad that you grew up aware that there was something to which you could apply yourself that would earn more than a bare subsistence living, and that only with the aid of growing/killing 3/4 of what you ate. -- Alex Esplin /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
