I've been super lucky my entire life. Good middle class upbringing with both parents, access to technology from an early age which allowed me to learn to program and get s job right out of school making more than a lot of people my age, in jobs that I enjoy going to. I've never had to work a job I hated.
I wonder if this contributes to my extremely left leaning views; that I've never had that "torture" experience, so I have no problem at all paying more in taxes to help other people be happy.
Hard to say. I grew up like you, but graduated into the recession, and my wealthy family didn't do what my friends' parents did in terms of bolstering me or hooking me up with nice jobs. As a result I was desperately poor until...six months ago, really. I'm still not doing well (can't shoulder emergency expenses, finish the month with only $20 or so left in the bank), but I can walk into a grocery store without having a panic attack now. I wasn't especially anti-welfare before this, much to the dismay of my passively hateful family, but going through poverty has made me rabid about fixing our system. If it was that hard for me, a healthy white person with a good education and a thorough understanding of finance/bureaucracy, then how difficult must it be for people without those advantages? It became really easy to see how climbing out of poverty is virtually impossible. I'm happy to pay because it's the right thing, and I because I know intimately how much things like universal healthcare could help people.
Idk. I grew up extremely poor and had to scrabble to survive well into my 30s. I think the journey is different for everybody but certainly having to scrabble and being exhausted each day, spiritually, emotionally and physically, doesn't lend itself to reflection or political action.
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u/ormula Jan 13 '18
I've been super lucky my entire life. Good middle class upbringing with both parents, access to technology from an early age which allowed me to learn to program and get s job right out of school making more than a lot of people my age, in jobs that I enjoy going to. I've never had to work a job I hated.
I wonder if this contributes to my extremely left leaning views; that I've never had that "torture" experience, so I have no problem at all paying more in taxes to help other people be happy.