F*ck You, Chuckles. Get a Job

Looks like Jay Tea over at Wizbang has been having similar thoughts to me today.  He found a George Will quote that pretty much matches word for word what I was thinking:

"...three not-at-all recondite rules for avoiding poverty: Graduate from high school, don't have a baby until you are married, don't marry while you are a teenager. Among people who obey those rules, poverty is minimal."

To which Jay Tea notes should be a fourth rule: don't get hooked on drugs or alcohol.

I have the questionable honour in my job of visiting a lot of poverty stricken areas.  Just to clear it up straight off the bat, of course, this is UK poverty - a different animal entirely from the kind of poverty you find in, say, Africa.  That deserves a capital P. 

So, there are a lot of areas in the UK that suffer from little p poverty.  These are areas of state housing - sprawling estates filled with identical crappy little houses that invariably smell of stale tobacco and cabbage.  I was in one this afternoon that smelled so bad it literally made me gag.  These aren't pleasant places to live.  Crime abounds, both petty and violent.  Skinny little underfed cats get chased around by limping, underfed dogs, which in turn get chased around by horrible snot-nosed underfed kids.  Convicts-in-waiting. 

I don't like to sound like a snob.  I'm really not.  I didn't grow up in a mansion myself.  My parents are comfortably off (by which I mean they were always able to provide for us and there were rarely red bills on the doormat).  I did well at school, didn't get myself in any trouble (either with the law or with young ladies), and I never got involved with drugs or alcohol to any level that would be described as a problem (gambling, however, is a whole different story for another day). 

Even so, I'm pretty damned poor.  I have maybe £20,000+ of debt and my bank account hasn't seen black for 6 years.  I live paycheck to paycheck, so by certain measures you could argue that I am poverty-stricken. 

But the difference between my poverty and that of many others is that I don't have to live in poverty.  I have a degree.  I have marketable skills.  I'm intelligent (not remarkably intelligent, but I can tie my shoelaces and everything).  If I so chose I could get up in the morning and find myself a better job with benefits and a flash company car.  I could do all that, but I'm a lazy fucker with less motivation than a sloth after a vigorous wank.

Jay Tea mentions a popular liberal point of view, which is: 'Don't blame poor people for being poor'.  I say no way.  I don't think there's nearly enough blame being thrown at the poor.  Not nearly enough.

I'm a big believer in personal responsibility.  You get fat: tough shit.  Don't blame McDonalds for making those nuggets so damned tasty.  You get cancer: tough shit.  Don't blame Marlboro.  You knew the risks.  The same goes for poverty, with a few exceptions.  Unless you are physically or mentally unable to graduate from high school, you have nobody to blame but yourself when you end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life. 

I'm just bitter, is what it is.  I worked full time jobs all the way through university.  One of those was a night job I did for six months.  I worked 10pm-6am before going to lectures.  I slept on weekends.  I worked the shittiest, most degrading jobs known to man.  I masturbated into a cup for a clinical study for a little cash (sure, it sounds like a sweet deal until you realise there will be two doctors outside the room monitoring the blood flow to your penis while you perform).  I sold timeshare.  I waded waist deep in rancid ice cream.  In short, those years sucked.

Still, I didn't give up because I knew it was my one chance to make a good life for myself.  I put up with the humiliation, the killer hours and the bosses who were younger than me.  And that's why I have zero sympathy for those who don't pay attention at school, take state benefits from my taxes and blow it all on lager and cigarettes.  Fuck them.  Take away the safety net.  Sink or swim.  You want to eat dinner tomorrow?  There's the unemployment office.  Get a job, chuckles. 

The point I'm trying so crudely to make is this: in this day, in either the UK or the US, there really is no excuse for poverty as long as you try.  Even without your GED or GCSE's you can train for a better job.  The excuses just don't wash with me, and I think it's time to cut the umbilical cord.  I'm sick of freeloaders.

Update

Aw, crap.  After reading over that post I realise that I've finally become my father.  Now I'm gonna have to take up golfing.

Comments

[Winston]

"I'm a big believer in personal responsibility."

Here, here! Bottoms up to responsibility! I feel like I could have written this post, though not nearly as eloquently as you. It reminds me of one I just posted a couple days ago:
http://www.nobodyasked.com/archives/2005/09/21/bird-lady-4-rules/
Here in the US I believe that poverty, with the few exceptions you also mentioned, is a direct result of the lazy bastards not being willing to take responsibility for their own lives. It takes far less effort for them to just bitch and moan and point the blame at everyone else. Again, with very few exceptions in our history, anyone who is willing to work can find a job. Many of the displaced victims of hurricane Katrina arrived at their destinations, applied for a job, and are working today. Others are waiting for the government to feed them and they will remain in poverty the rest of their sorry lives.

[Carolynn]

You're too funny to stay poor. Hope you get enough energy to find a slightly better paying job that will allow you time enough to continue writing.