@N0tJustY0ga
You are wrong to say the UK has 'more of' a safety net than the US, implying there is one in the US, only less developed than Britain's.
The US has NONE - bare-bones Dickensian-style health coverage doesn't count.
I would actually like to know what point you were trying to make about the safety net. You stated that you didn't have one for starters when you most certainly did.
...now I’m in the position because I didn’t give up. There’s no such thing as a dead end job & not being able to go anywhere I this country.
I disagree with your contention that it was simply a matter of 'not giving up' that enabled your success. Disagreeing with you, even strenuously, is not bullying btw. When a lot of people disagree with you it's not necessarily because of a mob mentality. It's often because you are very wrong.
I don't know you. I know nothing about your life.
But I do know many people who ascribe their success to their own efforts when in fact they have stood on the shoulders of many others in order to achieve what they have achieved - parents who were sober and solid individuals who helped them believe in themselves, for instance, or they have benefited from sheer dumb luck - right place, right time, or born in a prosperous metropolitan area as opposed to, say, Middlesbrough. Or good health, or good looks (don't scoff at this) or an accent that didn't mark them as a member of any unacceptable group, but it pleases their vanity to credit themselves and their own work ethic and mindset with their achievement.
Perhaps you benefited from good health, physical or mental.
Perhaps your child didn't suffer from chronic ill health, or a disability (please forgive my terminology if this word is offensive) or SEN, requiring time and energy on your part for therapies or appointments or advocacy for access to diagnosis or treatment.
Is that the excuse you are going to give yourself for not trying....because the US doesn’t have a safety net....then it’s impossible?
You jest surely?
You are not aware even now in these trying times that in the US your health insurance is tied to your job?
Meaning that if you get a job in the US that provides health insurance you hold on to it.
You do not take chances setting up your own business, because access to medical treatment for your family depends on your ability to provide health insurance, and buying it yourself is prohibitively expensive.
You might not even want to take the chance of changing jobs, because you could be denied whatever health insurance your new employer provides if you or your dependents have a pre-existing condition.
You might not change jobs if planning to have a baby because maternity coverage sometimes only kicks in after a year of paying premiums.
Some of this changed under President Obama with the ACA, which the 45 administration has devoted itself to destroying.
I won't console myself with the happy thought that at least I am not living in a developing country. The US has a long way to go before it will become a developing country; it is many thousands of miles behind the rest of the world when it comes to the hallmarks of a civilised society - paid maternity leave, paid family leave, paid sick leave, a living wage.
I am happy that things worked out for you.
But yes, in the US - which very misleadingly touts itself as the land of opportunity - fortune favours the white, the healthy, and those who won't ever need maternity leave.
Statically you have a WAY lower rate of succeeding if you can't tick all of those boxes, and people are not stupid.
Mordred Sat 28-Mar-20 18:59:15
'what is a Calvinist'"
You're poor? That's YOUR FAULT, that is.
The USA runs on this principle.
Yup. With bells on.
Hence the savage realities.
I am glad I have my Irish passport and glad too that my children are eligible for theirs when the time comes for them to make serious decisions about their lives.