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ter369's link to the top ten blog posts of the year, I found a post about intelligent design that made me laugh out loud, and a post about what being poor is like in the US that made me cry. The latter gets particularly potent in the comments, in which it becomes clear that the post is an inkblot: What you think about poverty (or poor people) affects how you interpret a list of statements of the form "being poor means [doing or foregoing X]." Some see liberal condescension; others a cry for political reform, aka class warfare. My own reaction is that class warfare seems perfectly justified given the conditions described, but the post itself is descriptive, not normative. I really liked the clear articulation of this basic point: being poor means not being insulated from the consequences of bad luck and/or bad decisions, because there is no margin for error.
By contrast, being rich means that I can miss a credit card payment by accident and just curse my stupidity and pay the $100-odd in fees and penalties, without entering into a debt spiral; it means that my car insurance paid for a loaner car when my car was rear-ended, so I can get to work; it means that I can stock up on diapers by buying in bulk and pay a lot less per diaper than I would in a drugstore; it means I can send my child to a school that will give him lots of advantages, which he'll need in a country that increasingly abandons everyone to their own devices.
ter369's link to the top ten blog posts of the year, I found a post about intelligent design that made me laugh out loud, and a post about what being poor is like in the US that made me cry. The latter gets particularly potent in the comments, in which it becomes clear that the post is an inkblot: What you think about poverty (or poor people) affects how you interpret a list of statements of the form "being poor means [doing or foregoing X]." Some see liberal condescension; others a cry for political reform, aka class warfare. My own reaction is that class warfare seems perfectly justified given the conditions described, but the post itself is descriptive, not normative. I really liked the clear articulation of this basic point: being poor means not being insulated from the consequences of bad luck and/or bad decisions, because there is no margin for error. By contrast, being rich means that I can miss a credit card payment by accident and just curse my stupidity and pay the $100-odd in fees and penalties, without entering into a debt spiral; it means that my car insurance paid for a loaner car when my car was rear-ended, so I can get to work; it means that I can stock up on diapers by buying in bulk and pay a lot less per diaper than I would in a drugstore; it means I can send my child to a school that will give him lots of advantages, which he'll need in a country that increasingly abandons everyone to their own devices.
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The Scalzi post, right?
That hit home with many readers.
In spite of my supposed middle-class background and appearance, I realized I was poor during the majority of my office-working years, when I could never buy even tuna in bulk, nor take advantage of a sale price unless I needed the item that week (before the next paycheck).
Most of my new neighbors are from Louisiana and Missouri. The buses stop in front of our apartment complex more often, as more people are using that line. I recall living in LA without a car, where nothing is organized around public transit. Grocery stores are a hike away from the lines, major entertainment centers aren't accessible by bus, and even in the suburbs there's a slight danger in taking the bus because you're seen as an easy target.
... it means I can send my child to a school that will give him lots of advantages, which he'll need in a country that increasingly abandons everyone to their own devices.
This reminds me. I should tell my investment guru to not factor in Social Security benefits to my future plans in a test model, just to see what I need to prepare for.
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This one is the one that shook me the most:
Being poor is having to live with choices you didn't know you made when you were 14 years old. That is something that scares me. I've been so lucky, I see that now, how slim is the line between smart and not so smart options.
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Being middle class means you get to choose to pinch pennies, and choose when to indulge and be able to afford mistakes. Maybe not catastrophic ones, but those accidents and patches of bad luck that befall everyone. Which make articles such as this (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050829fa_fact) insanely frustrating. You know, universal health care would be a bad thing because then it would take away the incentive for people to make enough money to afford it...
And the intelligent design debate is wondrously amusing, except for when it's not. There's this great New Yorker article on the recent trial which was definitely on the amusing side that I can't find online. It kinda gave me a crush on the presiding judge, just a little.
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