Derec, do you imagine that everybody in the world can just put their life on pause to acquire all the trappings of civilized society you take for granted?
No, but there are plenty people who are poor or were poor at some point in time that do not resort to living in the shadows.
My point is that the attitude defended by this "sociologist" is perpetuating the problem, not solving it.
These things don't materialize out of thin air, and they aren't free.
Who said they were?
When you're already on a razor-thin margin and choosing between feeding your kids and paying your heating bill this month, all while working 60 hours a week and trying to get those kids an education,
Let's do a reality check on that. If you are working 60 h/week, even at minimum wage and no time and a half for overtime, you will make $22,620 per month. You said "kids" so let's assume 2 children. Standard deduction is $9,300 for head of household, plus 3*$4,050 in exemptions makes $21450. So that person has only $1,170 in taxable income, resulting in federal tax burden of $117. But that's not all. EITC and child tax credit are worth several thousand, and these are tax credits and not deductions and thus will be more than enough to offset the minuscule federal tax burden and the $1730 in payroll (FICA) taxes. Thus, this hypothetical person will have negative effective tax rate and should be able to afford food, heat and the occasional speeding ticket.
one speeding ticket from when you didn't want them to be late for class is enough to put you underwater.
Not really, and as Jolly said, if you go to court you can get the fine amount reduced.
In any case, ignoring it, getting your license suspended for failure to appear and risking arrest on a bench warrant are much more costly propositions. So especially if the money is tight you should be keeping your legal shit in order. It is not an excuse to ignore it.
Compound all that with the fact that police presence in these neighborhoods is almost nonexistent unless they are trying to cuff somebody to meet a quota, and you've got your trap.
Is it? I thought there is more police presence in the poor neighborhoods.
It saddens me to think you've probably never encountered an example of someone else's misfortune and thought, you know, maybe I don't get the whole dynamic of what this person goes through, and I should give him the benefit of the doubt when he says he's screaming and nobody seems to hear him.
It's not about not have empathy about somebody else's misfortune. The lifestyle that Alice describes favorably is what is keeping them in misfortune indefinitely.
No, your first impulse is to find the context that preserves your omniscience about what other people should and shouldn't be capable of withstanding. It has to be there. It can't be that you just don't know what you're talking about because you sit on your ass all day with plenty to eat and nobody out to get you.
Well first of all, just because I do not run from police or because I do not have a girlfriend to practice-chase me does not mean I am sitting on my ass all day.
Second, am I and Jolly the only ones that realize that the behavior Alice describes there is really self-destructive, especially in the long run? The motto seems to be, why take care of one's legal problems when you can just run whenever you see police, even if they are not looking for you ...
