2 The Poor Remind Us That Sometimes The System Is In Fact Bullshit

Let's say you're a low-income single mom working at some restaurant for 30 hours a week, and were let go from your second job because you weren't on call for additional shifts due to, you know, having a first job. Last night, you paid for the bus and a babysitter, and then got sent home from work after two hours because the restaurant wasn't busy enough. You come back home and there's your neighbor, Darryl, hanging out with some of his worthless friends. They appear to be giggling while poking a dead squirrel with a stick. You think, "I have to put up with getting jerked around by my boss while he gets to sit on his porch drinking beer all day?"

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You tell yourself that you're doing it because you're sure that at some point you'll make manager, or build up your resume enough to get a better job, or maybe take night classes. But none of that has happened, or shows any signs of happening, and you know people who had that plan right up until they died of old age. Then you see your neighbor who isn't even bothering, and has roughly the same lifestyle as you. The system has clearly gone wrong, somehow. The incentives are set up to encourage this guy to do nothing!

Is that what you're mad about, though? Or are you really mad that incentives aren't set up to encourage you to do something?

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Then you think about the deadbeat family down the street who declared bankruptcy ("They borrowed money and then didn't pay it back! That's like stealing!"), or the co-worker who last week quit without a notice ("How can you just screw over the people who were putting food on your table?"). Your scorn comes from the fact that they don't seem to feel the same shame you do. But ... corporations declare bankruptcy all the time, and your job sure as hell isn't going to give you notice before cutting you loose. They're certainly not ashamed of it. And you start to have that sneaking feeling that maybe you're the sucker.