Yikes, Gary social engineering?
Well yes, when you suggest the government do something about WalMart wages etc. etc., what is it if not social engineering?
So many times it is the luck of the draw for people. There are people who can fall arse backwards into money, into good luck, into love, into great opportunities. They are just lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, most of the time they had much more going for them from the start. Am I my brothers keeper?
Luck... to me luck is being prepared for an opportunity when it presents itself and knowing how to decide as to what is an opportunity. IOWs I believe people create their own "luck" but far too many want to stay in the condition they find themselves rather than take any risks.
Are you your brothers keeper... Yes as long as you don't just feed him fish, house and clothe him instead of teaching him how to fish and get over his inabilities to bait his own hooks and learn where to throw the baited hooks. If you aren't doing that, then you are an enabler making him dependent on you and all others.
I have a girlfriend whose husband died even sooner than my own, her son was only 5 at the time. She was a Walmart worker trying to support herself and her son. It couldn't be done.
She should have insisted that he have at least 5 yrs worth of income in life insurance. That's the first thing I did right after getting married in 1964. I still have some.
But "lucky" for her that 'some' hadn't forced WalMart to pay more AND HIRE fewer people or she would have probably not had the opportunity to work there and would have been flipping hamburgers for a lot less and wouldn't have increased her abilities and self confidence by learning how to overcome her 'feelings' about driving a fork lift. Had she not "lucked out" with that job, she may have never gone to college because of fear, and other destructive 'feelings'.
Far too many people today FEEL their way through life instead of THINKING through their choices before making them. They just go along with the crowd (read mob), right down the tube, and that is not the fault of industry, employers or the government.
Now since I've heard of your friend, I could tell you about all the people that have used WalMart and other low paying jobs to make their own "luck" and end up owning their own businesses or that have moved to other companies based on their work ethic and record of showing up on time and willingness to do whatever they were asked to do WITHOUT WHINING etc. etc. at those first jobs, to much higher paying jobs and positions.
"She struggled"... as if that is a bad thing? Life is not fair, nevre will be because it never has been. Struggles EARN people self esteem, self confidence and allows them to learn how to get over their unfounded FEARS and take risks, and it should teach them to learn from their mistakes. Which if they don't, they usually fall into gossip with anyone that will listen about all the things that have happened to them and blame others for their problems; and many of the ones that listen to them then compound the person's problems by nodding their heads in agreement and gossiping with them about their own problems and they all spiral down the drain, together, so to speak.
BTW, is she proud of what she accomplished? If so, then she's normal because people that struggle and overcome are PROUD, they stand straighter and smile a lot too, unless they got stuck in some long ago anger.
