Was Malthus ever poor?

[DGuller]

The verdict is in:  Malthus, the jury of your peers concluded that you were never poor.  I'm sorry. 

[Malthus]

I may be wrong, but the way I see it is that you still had your parents supporting you for basic needs, and your excess cash was spent on drugs.  That does not qualify as poor when you have money for extras.

No. Parents did not support basic needs. They existed, and surely if I was in serious trouble they would have helped out.

If people who do drugs can't be poor by definition  ... 

[Malthus]

DG discovered that he didn't really understand what the term "poor" meant in a discussion with Malthus, and now is trying to build an argumentum ad populum that it is Malthus who doesn't understand the word poor.

I'm not trying to build an argumentum ad populum, the sizable majority agrees with me.

Please tell me this is a joke.

Unbelievable, eh? 

It truly is a quote for the ages - I mean, assuming it wasn't intended to be funny. I'm still unsure about that. 

[Eddie Teach]

It truly is a quote for the ages - I mean, assuming it wasn't intended to be funny. I'm still unsure about that. 

I'm sure it was. Guller is comedian.

[The Brain]

Deadpan jokes are boring as fuck though.

[Malthus]

Plenty of poor people obtain degrees for free, as you should know Mr. Basketball Scholarship.

There are a couple of differences.  First, my scholarships (both athletic and academic) were based on merit.  The kind of thing that people who do not get handed benefits based on birth have to earn.  Malthus on the other hand obtained a free education based on nothing more than an accident of birth.

Second, even after obtaining my scholarships I still had a significant debt load after I graduated from my undergraduate degree.  Since Malthus' father taught at the university he attended I assume it was close to his home and he had the option of living at home while attending university.

In the other thread I said it was comical that a person born into the kind of priviledged life Malthus had would try to claim he was poor.  Now I find it a bit offensive that he cant actually see the difference.

I've said many times in the other thread that I *don't* think our situations were the same. Dunno what else to say, really. If you are determined to work yourself up into a self-righteous froth, you will, no matter what I say. 

Why exactly is this all about comparing my situation with yours, anyway? What do you want, a prize? Yes, you clawed your way from a lower class family background and I did not. I've never said that I did.

My sole point is thatI have, for a few years, been poor - meaning I did not earn very much - on which I had to support myself. Just like millions of other people who have obtained worthless undergraduate degrees, and worked as dishwashers or whatever. It is hardly a unique situation. In hindsight, having worked my way through law school (which, unlike undergrad, I did have to pay for myself - and although heavily subsidized it was a lot more pricy that undergrad at the time), obtained a job, etc., it all looks like just an episode, but there was nothing inevitable about it - most of the people I knew from those days are now gen-u-inely poor, even by your standards, I think. 

[Admiral Yi]

I have...been poor

[CountDeMoney]

I believe Malthus is wealthy in life experience.

[Malthus]

I have...been poor

Okay you win, I'll use your phrase from now on.    Mind you, can't imagine where else I would do so. 

[mongers]

I believe Malthus is wealthy in life experience.

I believe wealth has experienced Malthus's life.   


On a more serious note, I'm not sure where this thread is going, at least in terms of beneficial outcomes.

I'm sure most of us have versions of our lives, that to an outside non-objective observer will sound somewhat constructed or at least not ring totally true, but that's the nature of living, there's a very real human tendency to shorthand or novelise life experiences to make them both more interesting and real to oneself. 

So no doubt there are large swaths of my life that wouldn't necessarily stand up to the forensic attention of lawyeresque techniques.
Can I swear my memory of what I got up to a quarter of a century ago is absolutely true and unvarnished, whimsyfied, no and I have just enough intelligence not to share it with the rest of you. 

[Admiral Yi]

I'm sure Malthus is pleased to know you support his efforts to bullshit his bio. 

[Malthus]

I believe Malthus is wealthy in life experience.

I believe wealth has experienced Malthus's life.   


On a more serious note, I'm not sure where this thread is going, at least in terms of beneficial outcomes.

I'm sure most of us have versions of our lives, that to an outside non-objective observer will sound somewhat constructed or at least not ring totally true, but that's the nature of living, there's a very real human tendency to shorthand or novelise life experiences to make them both more interesting and real to oneself. 

So no doubt there are large swaths of my life that wouldn't necessarily stand up to the forensic attention of lawyeresque techniques.
Can I swear my memory of what I got up to a quarter of a century ago is absolutely true and unvarnished, whimsyfied, no and I have just enough intelligence not to share it with the rest of you. 

I don't think the actual facts are in dispute here.  All people are arguing about it the label.

[The Brain]

The blood label.

[garbon]

I believe Malthus is wealthy in life experience.

I believe wealth has experienced Malthus's life.   


On a more serious note, I'm not sure where this thread is going, at least in terms of beneficial outcomes.

I'm sure most of us have versions of our lives, that to an outside non-objective observer will sound somewhat constructed or at least not ring totally true, but that's the nature of living, there's a very real human tendency to shorthand or novelise life experiences to make them both more interesting and real to oneself. 

So no doubt there are large swaths of my life that wouldn't necessarily stand up to the forensic attention of lawyeresque techniques.
Can I swear my memory of what I got up to a quarter of a century ago is absolutely true and unvarnished, whimsyfied, no and I have just enough intelligence not to share it with the rest of you. 

Everything in my bio is true.

[Richard Hakluyt]

What Languish needs now is a new member who has dragged himself up from the slums of Calcutta to the mighty heights of call centre operative. I would imagine that such a person would have short shrift for the claims of former or current poverty of any of us.