I’m reading an article on Slate.com about the Minimum Wage. It argues that raising the wage doesn’t really have that perceptible an effect on businesses, small or large. Then I jumped into “the fray” — the reader responses to the articles. One poster put up this paragraph:

It is shameful for a country so incredibly affluent to demand a harder life from its working poor purely because of spite and a deeply disturbed cynicism. Your personal experiences have colored your understanding I think. This country was founded on equal oppurtunity under the law and vastly unequal oppurtunity for everything else. After hundreds of years it may be time to keep improving. Though I suppose you are the same type who would say..”Well, I was a slave working my master in Georgia once. I escaped. Let them escape, the lazy *******.” Shameful.

…which garnered this reply from “VetsTruth”

I’ve had a job since I was eight years old, put myself thru college by working 20 hours a week and taking 18 to 22 credits. Tell me about your working fucking POOR! I’m devastated by your inner city rhetoric!

To which I had to retort:

The old “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” argument. “I did it, so can you!” But that assumes a whole bunch about the background, talents, opportunities, and support afforded to the “bootstrapper.”

So you’ve had a job since age eight. I admire your work ethic. I’ll assume it was a paper route. If that’s the case, you had paper routes that were available, access to a bike, a neighborhood safe enough for an eight-year-old to ride through, parents that were providing a clean, safe, nurturing environment, and no physical, mental, or social handicaps impeding your employment choice.

You got through college working 20 hours/week while taking 20 credits? Outstanding! That’s a tough row to hoe! So I’ll assume that you went to a pretty decent grade – middle – high school, had the talents to succeed in school, had parents that motivated you to do well, performed well enough academically to be accepted to your school, had the transportation to get back and forth to school, lived in an area where there were part-time jobs available that would adjust to your school schedule, had good health, had no children to support, didn’t get in trouble with the law as a youngster, and didn’t run into any forms of discrimination along the way. Good for you!

See, the only problem with the idea of pulling yourself up by your metaphorical bootstraps is that so many people don’t have boots.

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