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Originally Posted by Investing In Chicago
This is interesting to me...can you elaborate? I grew up to immigrant parents, dirt poor (in NYC not Chicago) and I don't recall our survival being dependent on living near other poor people.
I'm going to get a lot of shit for this from the bleeding heart crew, but for an able body person, getting out of poverty is not all that hard...having been around very poor people for most of my childhood and into young adulthood, many people are just either Lazy or Stupid or even worse, both. It's the hard truth.
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I think it's unfair to assume that individuals who are trapped in poverty or families mired in generational poverty are there because they are lazy or stupid. The United States has always striven to be a land of opportunity, but opportunity was not awarded equally. It takes 10x the effort to get that job at that well respected firm when you're born and raised in Englewood and your competition was born to a middle, upper middle, or affluent household with the resources and network in place to be successful. In the past, being able bodied and having an average work ethic was enough to put you on a course to the middle class...not so much these days. Better have that STEM degree or an advanced degree in a marketable field with 10+ years experience if you wan't to feel secure and maintain your middle class lifestyle.
Sounds like you did well for yourself, so I don't say this to belittle you, but you're definitely the exception and not the rule.