the_wanlorn | Classism and Mixtapes

RAGE

I never realized how angry rich little bows complaining about being affect a lot by Obama's tax plans makes me. I thought I was going to jump across the room and fucking strangle this kid. there's got to be a good comparison here, maybe involving food pantries. Like, do you shop at food pantries if you're rich because you deserve cheaper food for your hard work?

I don't know. It just makes me really fucking angry.

I'm sorry (except I'm really not), but if you're parents make a lot more than 250K, then your quality of life isn't going to be diminished by a rise in taxes similar to what the lower middle class and poor have been going through during the Bush administration.

And fuck, if my family could live comfortably on a teacher's salary with three kids, then you can just shut the fuck up you whiny little brat.

Then they were talking about social mobility and how the rich little boy's parents used to be poor but worked their way up to where they were now and thus it does not matter that they are in the vast minority because the ability exists, period. And some kid was all "I mean, you might not be able to blah blah, but I don't know...". aka "lol whiny poor people stfu and just work harder".

At which point "DO YOU SERIOUSLY-" escaped me before I could shut myself up. The teacher was all "Wait Erin was saying...." to which I replied ">:( NO >:(" and went back to stewing silently.

(I do more harm than good when arguing about class in the United States because I get so fucking angry that privileged pieces of shit like that exist that I can't articulate exactly why they're pieces of shit and end up just flailing in anger a lot. KIND OF LIKE I'M DOING NOW.)

So, hey, let's talk about this internet. And by talk, I mean let me tell you a fact. That fact is that social mobility in the USA is embarrassingly low. We're the land of opportunity that doesn't have any opportunities for a large portion of the population.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I'm trying to find the exact percentage that social mobility in the US has fallen in the past forty years, but it's eluding me for the moment. In any case, it has fallen and continues to do so, especially under the current economy.

Australia has better social mobility than the United States.

Technically, I should be one of the mice onmeme who gets involved and loud and furious during classwank.

But I'm not.

Because classwank makes me so fucking angry I can't even think straight. Never mind argue on the internet. I can hardly breathe because I am so horrified that people blinded by their privilege like that exist on my meme.

In conclusion, ANGRY.

In happier news (SEE HOW I LEFT THIS OUTSIDE THE CUT SO EVERYONE COULD SEE IT WITHOUT READING MY EPIC RAGE? YEAH, THAT WAS GOOD OF ME),

such_heights made an amazing election mix, Oh Yes We Can: An Election '08 Mix.

I seriously have it on repeat and whenever "Yes We Can" by Will.I.Am (AND OBAMA) comes on, I start grinning my ass off. I fucking love this mix, and I love

such_heights for making it, and I love LJ for bringing it to me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I want to talk about this, but everything that comes out of my mouth sounds lol privileged whitey. So I apologize in advance if I come off that way.

I grew up in a poor family that was absolutely crippled by debt, because that was the only way they could afford to better our family's situation. After my parents divorced, things got waaaay worse for all of us. Eventually my personal situation got better, but that was only because my grandmother moved in with us and used her pension to pay our bills and keep a roof over our head while my dad worked to further his career and pay off the debts he and my mother racked up.

I think because of everything my father has been through, and because of how hard he's worked for the last 25 years at his job, and because of how much he and my grandmother had to sacrifice, he's terrified that someone wants to take it all away from him. He just wants his American Dream, the one he has slaved to earn, and he feels like Obama wants to commandeer it all. No, he doesn't want to share his wealth with everyone in the country. It's his. He worked for it.

So, I can understand his point of view. He grew up barefoot in the holler, he doesn't want to go back there. I remember what it was like to not have food to eat, I remember the collection agencies calling all day, every day. I don't ever want to go back there, either, but I can't neglect to acknowledge I still had a ton of advantages that many other people around me did not. Yeah, I'm where I am today because I worked hard, and I maybe have a little bit of talent, but I think A LOT of it is luck and networking. I know how lucky I am. I feel guilty about having had a little bit of success when people even in my immediate family are in such a bad way.

I don't know. I fail at explaining myself. I just think that there exists a whole generation of people that have advantages because of sacrifices their parents made, they don't know what it feels like to have nothing, and their parents feel the same way my dad does, so it's like all they can do is repeat their parents' mantra without having any of the real experience behind it. If that makes sense. Heh. I'm sure the previous generation had the same shit said about them, too.

No, I see where you're coming from.

I can understand your dad's sentiments, but at the same time I don't agree with them at all. Partly because I don't believe that Obama is going to take so much money out in taxes that people are going to have to sell their homes and cars and go back to living the lifestyle they grew up in. Hell, I don't even believe that people who do make a shitton of money will be forced to pay so much in taxes that they'll be forced to live a lifestyle they've come to view as ~below~ them.

I mean, I grew up in a similar situation, and through my own inability to manage money (which is the whole thing where I'm so used to "No we can't afford it" and not being able to have that now that I can theoretically pay cash for it, I buy it. I AM LIKE SOMEWHERE BETWEEN JAY AND YOU). And I'm sure that this is one of the reasons why my parents are all >:O HIGHER TAXES BOO even though at our richest time we were making 100K (in a 4-person household with another adult son) which, for once in our lives, put us firmly in the middle class. And hey, now the only reason I'm not hanging out at poverty level is that I have student loans.

But the thing is exactly what you said. We are lucky. There are people out there who aren't or can't be because of the pathetic state of disability benefits and veteran care in this nation. And just because we've managed to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps means that now we're in a position to help people who were in our position.

And part of the reason why I get so angry at people who don't understand that is that they also seem not to understand that wealth is fleeting. Especially in this economy. Especially with the job shortage. You could fall again so fucking quickly it keeps me up at night sometimes, and then who's going to help you? Especially if the only people who can possibly understand your situation are going "Fuck you, it's my money."

I don't agree with Dad, either, and I think he's epically overgeneralizing when he says things like, "OBAMA WANTS TO TAKE AWAY MY RETIREMENT." Personally, I think the American Dream as it stands is a joke. It's manufactured by the media and marketed to us by corporations. An iPod in every pocket! An SUV in every driveway! A Starbucks on every street corner! Dude, all I care about is that I have my husband, and a roof over our heads, and food in our bellies. I can do without all the bells and whistles that I used to think were so important.

I totally understand that wealth is fleeting. It makes me lose sleep at night, too. Especially having screwed up as royally as I have in the past, buying into consumerism. I hope I wasn't too late to reverse the damage Jay and I had done to our finances. I could be losing my job tomorrow, with no new job prospects in sight, not even in retail or manufacturing. If things got really bad, I could lose my home like my mom did, even though we bought something well within our means. I'm making considerably less here than I was at my last job, and a bit less than I was making at the job before that one. My income has actually shrunk like crazy since Bush took office. I don't know if it's related, or just dumb luck.

I'd like to think that someone would help us if things got really bad, but it seems like the government, whether it's Democrats or Republicans, are only interested in helping out the corporations that sell us bullshit, who DO NOT pass along the wealth. For example, the bank bailout was supposed to make banks feel better about giving out loans. Those banks are planning to hold onto the funds instead, or use them to buy up other troubled banks' assets. Way to help "Main Street," guys.

BY THE WAY, I CAN'T STAND THE "MAIN STREET" BUZZWORD. I HAAAAAAATE IT LIKE I HATE THE WORD MAVERICK.

I still can't understand him, because shouldn't he be happy to help other people out of the hole he was in now that he can afford to?

I'm not apologizing for him, nor am I agreeing with his personal feelings on this subject. I'm the socialist black sheep of the family. I'm just going to try to explain what he feels and why.

He is considered middle class in this country. He has been taking almost half his net income and maxing out contributions for his retirement accounts for the last 20 years, because he didn't start saving for retirement until he was in his 30s (much like me, woe). He is trying to better his own current situation by the time he retires. He wants to move to the islands and start a small business that caters to tourists. To do this, he needs to have a lot of money saved. He is afraid that if taxes are raised considerably this dream of his will never be realized, and that makes him resentful. Is his dream wrong? Should he not aspire to do something that he loves to do with the rest of his life? The whole point of him doing without, and making his children do without, was so he could realize this dream and also leave something for his children when he's gone.

The short answer is, yes, he wants to help other people. He doesn't have a problem paying taxes that go toward education and infrastructure. He has a two daughters and two grandchildren on WIC and food stamps, which is subsidized by the state, so he understands the need for those types of programs. He's bailed out his children, his stepchildren, he helped me go to college. He would not hesitate to help me again if I needed it and he was in a position to do so. He's not a selfish person as far as that's concerned. I think he has a problem with feeling as if what he has rightfully earned is being given to people who may not be working as hard as he is, and he has no control over them like he has over his children.

I've actually had some nice conversations with him leading up to the election about his fears, and about being socially responsible. I think he bought into a lot of the fear mongering that the Republicans employed throughout the campaign. He feels like socialized medicine will bankrupt the country, but doesn't take into consideration that even with the good insurance his company provides for him, one illness or disease could completely bankrupt him.

I don't know. I think part of the problem is I don't have any answers for many of the points he brings up, other than WELL, DAD, IT'S MORE OR LESS WORKING IN THE UK, SO WHATEVER MAN. To which he replies, YEAH, WELL, THEY'RE ALSO PAYING 60% OF THEIR INCOME IN TAXES, COULD YOU LIVE ON 40% OF YOUR GROSS INCOME? And then I'm like

Classism and Mixtapes

my teal deer, let me show you it

Re: my teal deer, let me show you it

Re: my teal deer, let me show you it

Re: my teal deer, let me show you it

Re: my teal deer, let me show you it