Quote:
Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
In my experience, people living in public housing feel much the way you do about it. The difference being that they don't have a choice.
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Ironically, in my days as a... never mind, I knew many a public servant who felt like they didn't have choices. This will likely out me to an occasional reader who has heard this schpiel, but I'll say it anyway. 20-something HS grads I worked with would be asked, why don't you go to school like Hello... he's been going for 12 years in sometimes-tough circumstances.
Mind you, the people I describe are beloved friends of mine who perform incredibly difficult jobs. Seemingly across the board, they would mumble an excuse that always indicated nothing more than a lack of self confidence and motivation. Asked how they ever hoped to live past 50 (anecdotally, a cross-section of people in the profession starts dying at 35 and almost none live past 60), they would (across the board) mumble that they were trapped, or I can't do anything else, or whatever you will accept as being the equivalent of a belief that "they don't have a choice".
Few people have no choices. Few people are trapped. Few people have their back to a literal wall. Yet, whether its my friends or public housing residents, many will say they don't have a choice, and that they are trapped with no choices.
For a 17 year old without an adult record I have a very easy choice. Join the flippin army. Join the army and I'll support publicly housing you later if you feel like you don't have another choice.
And the lifelong public housing residents didn't join the army at 17 because why?
Hello
