• gkd@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    If you can think of some way that a family who has no savings and is living paycheck to paycheck can simply get up and move themselves to another state in any reasonable way…I think there are a lot of people who would love to hear it.

    That last though is the average “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps” line of thinking that is keeping millions of Americans in poverty.

    • stella@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      If you can think of some way that a family who has no savings and is living paycheck to paycheck can simply get up and move themselves to another state in any reasonable way…I think there are a lot of people who would love to hear it.

      I never said it would be simple. How many families in California are living paycheck to paycheck while eschewing all luxuries?

      I think there are a lot of people who would love to hear it.

      It’s called history. If you paid attention in class, you’d know that people have migrated with way less than the Californians who “don’t have enough money.”

      That last though is the average “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps” line of thinking that is keeping millions of Americans in poverty.

      No. It’s “don’t sit around and wait for other people to solve your problems when you can take step to solve them yourself.”

      The problem is that these people think they’re entitled to live in one of the most expensive places on the planet. They truly believe that supply and demand does not apply to them, and they need more wealth before the children who go without: food, water, shelter, electricity and education.

      The closer we get to the root of the problem, the more people we’ll find that contribute to it and the fewer we’ll find that are willing to admit it.

      • gkd@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It’s really imperative that we stop analyzing everything from the perspective of the past and what worked in the past while ignoring both the new possibilities we have now and the differences from the past. Just because people in the past were able to migrate with less means neither that they can do so now nor - more importantly - that they should have to. There is absolutely zero reason these days to have tends of thousands of people living homeless, with numerous millions more living in or on the verge of poverty. Saying “just leave and move somewhere else” is not a solution that makes good use of the available resources that we have.

        That’s the root of the problem. Complacency and elitism. Living in the past. I won’t make assumptions on your feelings or beliefs, but the same points that you are making are the same ones that those at the top constantly make to legitimize their negligence to do any bit of good for the rest of us. Because those very people would love to continue living in the past. Why would they want to see change?

        And believe me, I understand that for some people it makes perfect sense to move. I’d imagine that many of these CSU faculty have that option available to them as they are likely in much more fortunate situations. Telling them though to leave - or creating and maintaining the conditions to support that - is the worst thing they could possibly do. Texas, Florida, and other states made these same decisions - not through economics but through social policy - and pushed out doctors and academics. Now, health care access has plummeted and numerous educators have left the state or exited the field. All at the detriment of the people who don’t have the ability to get out themselves.

        • stella@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Okay. Let me know when these problems get solved doing something I don’t suggest.

          I can wait.