No, not at all. I feel like I'm being willfully misunderstood here. If you're working 60 hours a week or more at a manual labor that makes you sweat type job, you don't have the energy to do anything else. That's just a fact of human physiology. I'm sure you don't disagree with that, and no-one who has experienced it would. And if you have to do that to support your family, you aren't going to have many if any chances to do what it takes to move out of that type of job, even if you do hate it. Again, hard to disagree with that? You don't have to actually perform this type of labor for weeks on end to know that, you could just spend some time with folks who do and have some empathy. But if you have the hubris to say that all people stuck in that type of situation need to do is work harder and they can pull themselves out of it, it's generally an indication that you don't understand what that situation is like. Add in supporting family and it becomes pretty damn hard (although not impossible) to escape. To condemn all those folks as somehow lazy with a "victim mentality" is simply wrong, morally and intellectually.
Sure, I agree. Then again, I know people who worked full-time, had 2 days a week side job and every evening prepared food to be sold in their food business. Don't assume all of the people in ghettos are working to support sick family members, even if they do exist, they are a small minority. Most seem to be partying in their youth, then get kids by accident and since they had no plans, they now have to get min. wage jobs. This does not mean they are lazy but it's easy to fail at life when you make a series of wrong decisions.
and the matriarch leaking the video as a publicity stunt after seeing the attention to Hilton video...
I'd say exactly the opposite, don't assume all the people in ghettos in the U.S. are partying and get pregnant so somehow "deserve" being where they're at. That's the far more pejorative assumption and in my experience, again just working with these folks now not growing up there, not accurate. But, as I mentioned it does allow one to be callous toward them as a group, since it's now their fault and they could fix it if they just worked harder. There is nothing to indicate that the incidence of people born conscientious with a strong work ethic is somehow lower in inner city Baltimore than 25 miles away in Columbia. And yet the incidence of success for those inner city Baltimore folks is far lower. It's not a rational assumption to say that's entirely because all the naturally hard working folks in one area decided to go against their nature and party and have unprotected sex while the ones 25 miles away did not, nor is it really conscionable to believe that. Moreover, even if it was true, society as a whole is not served by condemning an entire large group of folks to eternal lives of shitty manual labor jobs because of a poor (but not illegal) decision or even multiple decisions they made at 18.
I think are more good people in a shitty situation than bad people in all situations. I’ve seen it myself when I left the well to do yuppie bubble of New York.
There is no question luck plays a huge part in what made me who I am, no if and or but about it. I thank my lucky star for my good fortune and I am giving some back to society for making me lucky. I worked incredibly hard when I had a "day job", usually more than twice the legal limit while still taking classes after work to improve my skills. Even that I attributed to luck: I am lucky I was born with a determination to work hard and not be like my cubical mates, just goofing off whenever they had a chance. Now that I no longer needed a "day job", I am just very lucky I started full time trading in a raging bull market, when even a monkey throwing darts can make a fortune. So, for one man, luck means everything and I hope to give enough back to those who are not so lucky.
Guidance from whom? Other people in the same environment? That is like taking a course on trading from someone who doesn’t trade. People listen to the wrong advice.