Brother, Can you Spare a Bootstrap?

I was showering when I thought of the above title for an anecdote to illustrate why I am appalled at the social and economic injustice rampant in today's politics and American society in general. Then I got comments on Wednesday's post that added fuel to my fire.

First, the anecdote.

In 1966 my mother was 25 years old and the mother of a two-year old and a newborn. Her husband had just left her (to run naked in the woods of Northern California--that's another story). She went on welfare and stayed on welfare while she got some job training. Then she took advantaged of subsidized day care and Head Start while she began working at UCLA (a state institution).

By the time I was five-years old she was not receiving any assistance whatsoever--though we did still shop at Goodwill.

My mother worked for the University of California system or an affiliate for 25 years. She owned a home as a single woman. She paid taxes. She was, without a doubt, a contributing member of society. Why? Because she got help from the government when she needed it; she was able to pull herself up by her bootstraps because she was given bootstraps.

In addition to that outside help my mother was lucky to be born white, pretty and smart. Don't discount the power of any of those attributes.

In case you missed these comments from yesterday, I want to highlight them today.

You see, Jenn, we live with the Great American Myth that says that, if you are having financial troubles, it is somehow your fault; because America is the land of opportunity and anyone who wants to succeed can. Any evidence which flies in the face of that is either dismissed or explained away with "That person made the wrong choices - game over." I think this myth is appealing, because it gives us the illusion of control over our lives. Those of us who have lost that control (through no fault of our own!) are forced to live both without the myth and without health insurance (which, oh, by the way, isn't really necessary, because no one needed it in the fifties and maybe you should just take better care of yourself.) Really, I could go on; but I won't.--Suburban Correspondent

I so agree with suburban correspondent above. It is so easy for people who are living well because of great opportunities to be blind to the lack of opportunities for others. They aren't even aware of how their lives were different than others and how that shaped their outcomes. I think this is the reason there is a correlation between liberalism and education level. A typical liberal arts education tries to open our eyes to how other people live, and how it impacts their ability to be successful in life. There is no such thing as a level playing field in the U.S.--Renee

Green Girl, I started reading The Grapes of Wrath again this summer and almost couldn't take it. Elizabeth Warren has said this more eloquently than I could, but I agree with her wholeheartedly: "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that maurauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea — God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."--Lanes

Comments

[Christina]

THIS is exactly what I have been arguing on Facebook against the anti-99%ers all damn day. May I share it there please?

[gary rith]

Elizabeth Warren said it there---if you are lucky to be able to pay your bills, be grateful, if you are stinking rich, you did it on the backs of the whole society. MORESO, as your example, jenn, points out, invest a little in some people, to help them get education and good work and a) they are better off and b) society as a whole is better off and c) if society overall is better off, there is less crime, more happiness for all, etc and d) I am not proud of the corporate greed I see all over America--I am ashamed at some Americans because they want us, like you said Jenn, to be like South America or Calcutta, where super rich have guards and big fences surrounded by nasty ghettos.

[disparity]

I know someone——love someone——who doesn't have enough money for food at the end of the month. This past summer, my friend lost an already low-paying job due to lay-offs. Her car was repossessed. She fell behind in rent. She is a single mother, who is fortunately working again, but at a 32-hour per week, $9/hr job; the employer won't give her more hours. She doesn't have health insurance. SHe takes three buses to get her three-year-old to day care, where he is only allowed to be dropped off if he also is dropped off with a supply of Pull-ups, even though he's potty-trained. Last month, like many others before, she didn't have enough money to make it. She had to wait five days for her WIC check, and another two for her paycheck. She had no food in her bar-sized refrigerator, which cannot hold the monthly food she gets from WIC, so she has to give away gallons of milk and cheese each month otherwise it will go bad. Needless to say, she cannot afford a full-sized refigerator. To get by when food runs out, she gives her child "bread with water, hoping the bread expands in his tummy." She ran out of Pull-ups. The day-care wouldn't admit him, so she was frantic trying to find child care so she could go to work. She has no support system, no family. None. She is alone. And she is black.

Her life is a Dominoes game. One of those precariously balanced pieces tips and everything is fucked.

Certainly, she's made choices in her life that have brought her to where she is. But it doesn't take a sociologist to trace a pretty straight line between where she is now, and the foundation laid out for her. Her opportunities were/are hardly the same as those enjoyed by most of us white folks, who really do not have (care to have?) a grasp of what is happening amongst our brown brothers and sisters in this nation. And to be sure: my friend is not unique. She is one of millions and millions of Americans in this situation.

Our society is facing a moral crisis. A tremendous and dangerous moral crisis, because in the end, we are all connected.

[magpie]

Well said, Jenn - and the quoted comments also.

[green girl in wisconsin]

It's so easy to deny others when you have so much--what I've wondered is why the clamor of voices who don't have enough hasn't been LOUDER. It pleases me to finally hear the noise.
I still cannot fathom the concept that people shouldn't have access to health care--seems to me that by providing it, many people's economic situations would improve--including the small businesses struggling to provide benefits to their employees!

[Susan @ A Slice of my Life]

The whole situtation makes me think of the supposed Marie-Antoinette quote "Let them eat cake!" The 1% are so out of touch eality and could care less even if they were in touch. They might want to think about the whole French Revolution and how that turned out for the other 1%

[Busy Bee Suz]

Well said!!
**Applause**

[Karen (formerly kcinnova)]

Disparity said what is true for so many of the 99% of us out there: "Her life is a Dominoes game. One of those precariously balanced pieces tips and everything is f^@ked."
Some of us have more stable dominoes on the board than others, but even then, if a domino tips, many pieces fall.
The other big piece is an extended family that can & will help in times of crisis. So many people no longer have that support system.

[phd in yogurtry]

I once got into an argument over the economic advantage of a pretty set of teeth. A die hard (obnoxious) libertarian, lucky enough to be born into a family with nurturing parents, a brain good enough to get a BS degree from a major university, and a beautiful set of teeth, would not concede the difficulty of getting a decent paying job with no education and noticeably unattractive teeth. I am infuriated by the obtuse rejection of the fact that most successful, wealthy people owe it to a list of factors that has nothing to do with their own boot straps.

[Trudie]

Well said. I read "The Grapes of Wrath" in the 60's the first time but it feels as if it's a story of today - with a different backdrop.
The market does not have the answers to all ills, contrary to what we've been told for years now. I'm totally with the 99% because this is about my future and that of my son.

[Aunt Snow]

Every time I am lucky enough to take advantage of the benefits I have, I think what it must be like to be without them. As some of you know if you read my blog, I was stricken with a gastro-intestinal crisis this spring that resulted in major surgery. I am fine now, but I can't help but thing - what would have happened if I'd worried about the cost of going to my doctor when I first felt ill? If I'd postponed it, I might well have suffered from peritonitis.

Even if I had gotten timely care, I see from the bills that have trickled in - thankfully, covered by my insurance - that this crisis would have cost my family tens of thousands of dollars.

And again, all I can do is be grateful, but think of those who aren't as fortunate, and how devastating it must be to be hit by a crisis.

[Hermes Birkin 2012]

HHH Yes, the design of national policy is important, how our economic development plans for the next five years, how the implementation, how to make our economy even faster. Are designed to advance our focus to invest money in what ways it should be carefully arranged.

[Belstaff Bag]

Liked you on Facebook, too. =)