Quote:
Originally Posted by kdoir345
Youre a human being, you should have the desire to succeed and if you dont, then I dont feel for you.
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I'm with you there. I can feel for 3rd world countries and such, but there are way too many Albertans that can work, but don't. If if you are simply too lazy to work, is it really our job ("our" being those that work) to work harder so they can sick around and waste a life? If you don't plan on accomplishing anything in life, then thats their problem. An unproductive society is what held the Russians back, wasn't it?
For all the "comes from a tough home" and such, my girlfriend comes from a family with a abusive father and a deathly ill mother who divorced when she was 4, unwanted by both. By grade 10, she moved out on her own when both her parents decided they wanted to wipe the slate clean, and start whole new families abandoning their old one (ie. girlfriend). She worked 3 jobs to support her way through high school, and worked through university to keep herself in university and just finished her engineering degree (21 years old). She started her masters degree a couple a couple weeks ago.
My grandfather graduated from high school with high enough marks for a full scholarship to university, but forgo the
opportunity to sell food on the street to help support his family. However, he read as many books as he could, from business to pharmacy and the day he retired, retired with over $5M canadian in assets from owning multiple pharmacies. My uncle (other side of the family) came over to North America broke, i.e. no money to afford rent, and lived in a a church basement. He had to be up every morning at 5:00 (when the church opened for something) and really didn't have anywhere to store his stuff, so he carried around most of his possessions. He eventually completed his chemical engineering degree, and is living a pretty upper class life right now.
A friend of mine in university, abuse alcoholic father et al, lived on his own since he was 15 with no family support. For 3 years, he worked at the Airport but didn't have enough money for rent (he payed for university) so he slept at the airport, akin The Terminal. In his first 2 years, he would have 1 meal a day, sometimes only 1 meal every 2 days. He has been in the military, and has been shot in the leg before, and is also mentally disabled. He finishes his mechanical engineering degree this year.
I was in Cambodia a couple weeks ago, a country that suffered through a civil revolution and lost their entire educated population when the United States prevented the UN from helping Cambodia. People in Cambodia had to find a way to survive. One of the waiters at my table was a ~10-14 years old during the revolution and knew he had to get an education to survive, but could not afford education. So, to learn English, he biked 16km to Angkor a couple times a week to try and start conversations with tourists to learn English. After doing this a couple days every week for about 10 years, he was able to get himself into a school to learn to be a waiter. He's worked there about 3 years, and hopes with another 2 years of working, he will have enough to leave Cambodia and go to a university.
My tourguide, similar story. His parents were victims of Pol Pot's genocide, and fled to (Thailand, I believe) and did the exact same thing... tried to start conversations with tourists to learn English. His education was to wake up every day, and go talk to tourists to learn English. This eventually led him to the career he has (tour guide).
When I was in Hong Kong - 10x's the population, far less homeless people living on charity. If you couldn't get employed for a job, you found another way to get a job. Sell some newspapers on a corner of a busy road, for example.
(Me, I'll admit, I've had it pretty easy. Grew up a middle class family. Good parents. Pretty standard sailing through life thus far.)
Sorry, but I don't see myself as ignorant at all when I don't feel sympathy for homeless people who are looking for a free ride, but have the capacity to work. After seeing many other stories of people struggling in far worse situations (ie. civil revolution, girlfriend) I don't buy the "my dad was an alcoholic" excuse.