Social Class in America: Three Ladder System

[CountDeMoney]

So yeah... I think life rewards taking well-calculated risks, luck, and good starting positions.

You forgot the lack of a moral compass that permits the ability to fuck anybody over at anytime for anything, unfettered by conscience or consideration.

I need to develop that.

We're not discussing your dating life.

[garbon]

Why not?

[Eddie Teach]

Why not?

Does it have a three ladder system?

[Jacob]

Why not?

You haven't offered many details, so there isn't much to discuss.

[garbon]

Why not?

You haven't offered many details, so there isn't much to discuss.

Seedy appears to disagree.

[merithyn]

I think there is a very, very large difference between the poor and the underclass that you are missing.

The poor might be poor, but their social class and culture allow them to have a reasonable shot of becoming not poor, and it isn't generational. Their kids might be poor, but might not, and have a pretty decent opportunity to become not poor if they have a reasonable amount of intelligence/ambition/hard work, etc.,

Being poor sucks, but it isn't any kind of permanent sentence.

The underclass in America are the poor who for a variety of reasons are generational poor. They are poor, and quite likely their kids will be poor as well, because their social "class" is one that lacks the very things that give mobility to other poor Americans. Familial stability, appreciation for and access to education, etc., etc.

I'm aware of the difference. I understood this particular tangent to be about the shrinking middle class (or lack thereof), not the difference between poor and underclass.

It may well be that the working poor can work their way out - or their kids can - but it doesn't change the fact that the number of people below the poverty level is steadily growing. And they're not coming from the upper classes; they're coming from the middle. So it seems to me that the idea that the "shrinking middle class" is scare-mongering or a myth is ridiculous.

[merithyn]

Or the nephews of celebrated cultural icons.

Yeah, I can take that right to the bank. 

If you had no morals, you could. Just look at what Princess Diana's brother did with her. Hell, he's almost solvent now!

[Razgovory]

Jews.

That's not who he meant

Heh.  You'd like to think so.  The phraseology of the right wing has changed quite a bit, but usually is grounded in the same ideas.  Instead of "Jews control the Press" we have "Liberal Media Elite".  Same concept.

[CountDeMoney]

Why not?

You haven't offered many details, so there isn't much to discuss.

Seedy appears to disagree.

I just don't think you have a problem with dispensing with your moral compass when it comes to dating.

[Eddie Teach]

Jews.

That's not who he meant

Heh.  You'd like to think so.  The phraseology of the right wing has changed quite a bit, but usually is grounded in the same ideas.  Instead of "Jews control the Press" we have "Liberal Media Elite".  Same concept.

The right wing has nothing on you and Seedy when it comes to bringing ethnicity into everything.

[derspiess]

Heh.  You'd like to think so.  The phraseology of the right wing has changed quite a bit, but usually is grounded in the same ideas.  Instead of "Jews control the Press" we have "Liberal Media Elite".  Same concept.

OMG DOG WHISTLE POLITIX

[MadImmortalMan]

We've also got the judicially poor. Those people who had to suffer irrationally harsh legal sanctions that create extra barriers to success that would otherwise not be there. I'm talking about a 20 year old with a drug possession charge for having some weed or something minor like that. In the era of background checks, that crap can ruin your life for just one dumb mistake. Kinda takes away any reason they might have had to try at that point. If we didn't have an underclass, we'd manufacture one.

[merithyn]

We've also got the judicially poor. Those people who had to suffer irrationally harsh legal sanctions that create extra barriers to success that would otherwise not be there. I'm talking about a 20 year old with a drug possession charge for having some weed or something minor like that. In the era of background checks, that crap can ruin your life for just one dumb mistake. Kinda takes away any reason they might have had to try at that point. If we didn't have an underclass, we'd manufacture one.

Yeah, that's a good point, too. The mistakes that we made as kids 30 years ago could destroy a kid's future today.

[Razgovory]

Jews.

That's not who he meant

Heh.  You'd like to think so.  The phraseology of the right wing has changed quite a bit, but usually is grounded in the same ideas.  Instead of "Jews control the Press" we have "Liberal Media Elite".  Same concept.

The right wing has nothing on you and Seedy when it comes to bringing ethnicity into everything.

Today's Translation: "Welfare Fraud".

[Ed Anger]

They have such big feet.