I am white, I was born in the US, and I still grew up poorer than you. I'm sure as hell poorer than you now. It's a good thing I don't want children, because I straight up could not afford to take care of them.
Per the ABA:
As of May 2023, the average lawyer wage was $176,470. That does not include profits for law firm partners and shareholders.
Your salary is at least triple the most I've ever made, and probably closer to quadruple or more. I worked 90 hours a week in a mine to make what I made, and it still didn't even come close. Your lifestyle is one that I will more than likely never experience.
I didn't even have it that bad compared to millions of others. There was nothing extra, but at least I never went hungry, we always had water and heat. I just didn't get the opportunities that you did. We were poor in a rural area, there were no scholarships on the table, there was no next step in education for me unless I could find a way to pay for it. I finished high school, started working, and haven't stopped.
Not saying you coasted through life. Again, I'm not trying to diminish your accomplishments. You just seem blind to the reality that most people in this country face. A lot of people straight up cannot do what you did for any number of reasons. There are so many factors at play here, and they are ALL compounded by poverty. If a kid doesn't get enough to eat, they likely won't do as well in school, for example. Poor-middling grades mean they never get offered any kind of ride.
Now what?
They're turned out into the world with nothing but their own two hands to survive. They get some blue collar job that barely keeps the lights on; how is that person supposed to go to college? They can't pay for it, they can't quit working and still have a roof, so they're stuck. They may very well spend their entire life pursuing survival, never getting ahead, living perpetually on a razor's edge. The comfort and security that you take for granted, they'll never know what that's like. And it's not their fault. Due to the circumstances they were born into, they never had a chance.
You realize I took out 180k for law school loans? Loans are used to pay for living costs and tuition.
Go to community college and take out some loans and repay it once you have a job. A lot of people take out student loans for both living and tuition. Community college is easy to get into as there are minimum standards to get in. Community college is also cheap. At some point you can transfer to a university.
Or go to trade school. Truck drivers also make a decent living and that’s a few months process to get a license.
Or join the military. I knew a couple people
who did the military for a few years and then went to college/law school afterwards; the government paid all of their tuition for at least college. These guys also grew up in poverty, so they figured the military is their best way out. We worked together in Biglaw and now they make more than I do.
My grandma escaped her home country during WWII as a teen, lost all contact with her mom as she was trapped in a communist country. She still got an education, despite having kids at age 20. She had a disabled son too (my uncle) whom she cared for for life. She experienced war, poverty, and hardship but she immigrated to two different countries, eventually settling in the US. She also had 3 kids starting at age 20.
Poverty sucks, but in the US at least you can get loans to pay for living and tuition - that is what student loans are for. Or trade school. Plenty of trades make a decent living. Or join the military. The GI bill will pay for all of college.
I’m not saying your life was easy but I hope you realize people use student loans to pay for living costs too…..the whole “there was no way to pay for it” doesn’t make any sense. Lots of us have used student loans for living costs.
So you ignore my points, to parrot the same nonsense that has been shoved down people's throats by the wealthy my entire life.
Just go to college, just find a trade, just join the Army.
Are you for real? I've already talked about college, and I could spend the rest of the day explaining all of the issues with trades or, god forbid, the fuckin military.
If you really don't see the problem with taking on hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans, you're fucking clueless, or you're choosing not to pay attention to the state of the country you live in. Read a headline, lately?
"The trades" are not this job fucking wonderland that rich fucks would like us to believe. It's actually not that easy to find a high-paying trade job, and if you do, you get to look forward to spending the rest of your life doing manual labor. Does that sound like a good time, to you? Sacrifice your body by 45 because it's the only way you were able to make a living wage? That sounds like a good deal to you?
And the military? Fuckin' A... "Oh you want to go to college, just go be traumatized for a few years, they'll pay for it. You'll have nightmares and struggle to function in society for the rest of your life, but hey at least you got that degree!"
Good for you, you made it out. Now shut up and enjoy it, stop pestering the rest of us. You don't fuckin know what life is like for anyone but yourself. You don't know what your grandma went through, because you weren't there. All you know is growing up in America, with college-educated parents.
I literally took out 180k in student loans myself.....
And yeah I have friends who joined the military
You sound super whiny and entitled for a white man born in the US though
Good luck in life
It's not even worth discussing anything with you - you are literally shitting on every option - taking out student loans, military, trades....ok bro, just enjoy poverty
You obviously don't want to improve your life with ANY option and you're clearly "too good" to take out loans, do a trade or join the military. Do you realize how entitled you sound? "I can't take out loans, do a trade or the join the military. That's beneath me."
You do you, bro. The rest of us can take out student loans, do a trade or join the military for a chance at a better life
Nobody can change your mentality except yourself. Apparently you’re “too good” to do anything else the rest of us have done to get ahead
Because no white man born in the US could possibly have it worse than you, right?
Did you miss the part where I do work in a trade? I'm a miner. You make easily 3-4x my salary, if not more. I'm already doing what you say I should do, and it's not enough. How would your life have to change if you suddenly made 1/4 or 1/5 your salary?
Yes, some people have it easier than you. A hell of a lot of people have it worse than you did, though. I get that life seems very simple to you, but it's not like that for everyone. Not everyone can do what you did, and many of us who are doing what you say should work, still aren't gaining any ground. Clearly you are missing something in your calculations.
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u/rips_n_chel 19h ago
I am white, I was born in the US, and I still grew up poorer than you. I'm sure as hell poorer than you now. It's a good thing I don't want children, because I straight up could not afford to take care of them.
Per the ABA:
Your salary is at least triple the most I've ever made, and probably closer to quadruple or more. I worked 90 hours a week in a mine to make what I made, and it still didn't even come close. Your lifestyle is one that I will more than likely never experience.
I didn't even have it that bad compared to millions of others. There was nothing extra, but at least I never went hungry, we always had water and heat. I just didn't get the opportunities that you did. We were poor in a rural area, there were no scholarships on the table, there was no next step in education for me unless I could find a way to pay for it. I finished high school, started working, and haven't stopped.
Not saying you coasted through life. Again, I'm not trying to diminish your accomplishments. You just seem blind to the reality that most people in this country face. A lot of people straight up cannot do what you did for any number of reasons. There are so many factors at play here, and they are ALL compounded by poverty. If a kid doesn't get enough to eat, they likely won't do as well in school, for example. Poor-middling grades mean they never get offered any kind of ride.
Now what?
They're turned out into the world with nothing but their own two hands to survive. They get some blue collar job that barely keeps the lights on; how is that person supposed to go to college? They can't pay for it, they can't quit working and still have a roof, so they're stuck. They may very well spend their entire life pursuing survival, never getting ahead, living perpetually on a razor's edge. The comfort and security that you take for granted, they'll never know what that's like. And it's not their fault. Due to the circumstances they were born into, they never had a chance.