Author |
Topic Search Topic Options
|
miss3
Groupie
Joined: 16/March/2004
Location: Canada
Points: 48
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Topic: Bottom line poor not welcome in school Posted: 29/October/2004 at 11:07am |
I am absolutely disappointed in how some of the threads have gone. I really did think that most of the posters had been through financial HELL and so would likely be empathetic, there are some who are, but not as many as I'd first thought.
I was struck by an Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLGC) television ad about the Cash4Life instant tickets. Right there in full colour television was the opinion of the government (Ontario anyways.) It begins with a couple scratching a ticket and the "lottery fairy" appears and waving his wand the couple suddenly win the $1000 per week for life (or is it now $2000?) The comercial continues to show how it could have been before and after winning the lottery. For example, before winning the husband is lounging around in a child's inflatable pool and after winning he is leisurely afloat in a ritzy in-ground pool (sipping fancy drinks.) I had seen this commercial quite a few times and thought how my husband is right when he says that lotteries are a "poor man's tax." Suddenly I saw the part in the commercial where the couple's son is graduating. Before winning the lottery the poor kid is wearing a uniform that looks like a Mc Apron complete with fast-food paper hat, but after winning the lottery this same son is now wearing the complete graduation gown and cap standing in front of a beautiful-looking higher institution accompanied by his parents who are also smartly dressed. Well! The OLGC certainly know that it is STUPID to believe that any poor (expletive) is going to graduate and have any hope of a rosy financial future unless he/she wins the lottery. That's like saying "When hell freezes over."
On a different topic but definitely related. In another thread I found this: "Look Cesca, I hate to stereotype, but DH has been on the dole for four years. In previous posts, you said that most of DH family was either on the dole or on disability. Do you not see a pattern here?"
It is commonly accepted that poverty does tend to run in families. Has anyone ever considered that the system perpetuates this? There are rags to riches stories, but they are very rare. And in the case with disabilities they do tend to run in families! That's why a good doctor asks you for your family history. My mother has diabetes and I have to be screened regularly. My husband's mother, two uncles and one aunt all had serious anneurysms, therefore he needs to be screened and so do our kids.
It's funny but Carl G. Jung apparently once said that it would be interesting to study whether psychiatry ran in families. I would like to see how "economic well-being" also runs in families. And families with economic well-being wouldn't know of their well-being if there were no poor families to compare themselves to.
So being poor is okay, just think that you are making someone happy.
|
|
Sponsored Links
|
|
|
eshelton
Groupie
Joined: 19/January/2004
Location: Canada
Points: 375
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 29/October/2004 at 1:45pm |
miss3,
Good eye on the commercial. So people who win the lottery or who
are really rich get to go to university. I'd like to pin that to
the government.
So the government is essentially saying 'you can have no education with
no money, or have a good education with a lot of money'.
This flies in the face of their policy of being accessible to all students regardless of income.
|
"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven." - Jean Chretien
|
|
countrygirl2094
Groupie
Joined: 24/June/2004
Location: Canada
Points: 71
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 29/October/2004 at 2:45pm |
We should make a commercial of our own.........showing the pain and anguish you can and most likely will suffer if you take out a student loan. You know.....like they do for cigarettes? They show these disturbing commercials on how smoking can be harmful to you health....
|
|
blah
Senior Member
Joined: 18/June/2003
Location: Korea, South
Points: 101
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 30/October/2004 at 7:31am |
That’s a great idea!
Here’s my promise to all of you if I ever win a huge lottery: I will pay for such a commercial to be produced and broadcast across Canada. But I will go a step further and highlight a few facts about HRDC, CIBC, RBC, collection agencies, and how inhumane it all is.
The sad part is that the government would probably blow millions of dollars in rebuttal ads.
|
Friends don't let friends take Arts degrees
|
|
nago
Groupie
Joined: 01/December/2004
Location: Canada
Points: 212
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 16/January/2005 at 1:26am |
Country girl im not so sure
Its quite embarrassing
You see i applied for a low income gym membership through the city of surrey here in BC.
What they want is a completed form with a notice of assessment and utility bills.
but i got the run around and had to apply and reapply 5 times now.
Its a really degrading process.
They even went so far as to call me a liar on the phone.
Asking me how i pay 500 bucks rent each month with 1300 total income is hard to explain
I ended up supplying all my student loans documents, my pardon for
criminal record, a 4 page detailed description of my life, a reference
letter from volunteering with some kids, 3 letters from my landlord.
I ended not qualifying for a low income membership because im too poor(this is excluding my student loan payments)
Because of the poor treatment I wrote the vancouver sun and will write
to the city of surrey demanding better treatment of the poor and
improved ethical practices---im really sick of the way the poor are
treated here.
But to finish the story:
My nephew bought me ten tickets
But everytime i walk in I get snickers, the staff look my way alot, and the life guards look strangley at me.
Its an embarrassing but maybe "taser guns would work better"-- a
security guard or former student could zap people when they pick up an
application :)
|
http://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2sn9.jpg
|
|
masy
Groupie
Joined: 13/June/2004
Points: 64
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 17/January/2005 at 9:25am |
That's terrible nago, what gym was this? I know that the YMCA has a community accessibility policy where they set membership rates according to the person's income.
I read the first post on this tread and I agree that poverty can run in families, because I've seen it happen. You have to have opportunity to well, have more opportunity. If your parents are poor, then they can't afford to pay for things like educational camps, sports, fieldtrips, etc, and of course not college or univeristy. If you get a student loan, you start out your adult life already in the hole for thousands of dollars.
It reminds me of this card game I used to play back in Nfld called 'Asshole', where all of the cards are divided amongst the players and the goal is to be the first person to get rid of all of your cards. There are wild cards, which help get rid of the other cards in your hand quicker and the last person to get rid of their cards is the Asshole. The Asshole has to deal and give two of their best cards to the person who got rid of their cards first - the President. So, the Asshole starts the new game already at a disadvantage, thereby increasing the chances that he or she will end up being the asshole again.
Sometimes, I feel like I'm still playing that stupid game
|
|
nago
Groupie
Joined: 01/December/2004
Location: Canada
Points: 212
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 18/January/2005 at 8:49am |
oh i dont mind being in the hole but the problems is working for less than minimum wage
|
http://img152.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2sn9.jpg
|
|
SolveStudentDebt
Moderator Group
Joined: 05/November/2003
Location: Canada
Points: 5996
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 18/January/2005 at 6:06pm |
Is that you, Danny?
If so, we have work to do. Get on the phone and call me.
Johnny
|
Solve Student Debt specializes in solutions for students and graduates in student loan default, and those at risk of defaulting. solvestudentdebt.com
|
|
pretzel_logic
Groupie
Joined: 15/February/2005
Location: Canada
Points: 70
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 15/February/2005 at 7:46am |
There is a point when the door closes on the poor, I agree. It takes on different forms in our formally democratic educational system. It could simply be that your social background did not prepare you properly for higher learning, a privilege traditionally reserved for the rich. If your parents were blue collars, say, they could not offer any guidance in approaching University life and everything it implies, including the financial aspect of things.
And then, straight off the bat, the bar was higher for you, having to deal with this complex problematic by yourself. You lacked the "cultural capital" needed at the onset, some would say, and were more likely to err.
|
|
stressedmomma
Newbie
Joined: 18/April/2005
Location: Canada
Points: 16
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 18/April/2005 at 6:28pm |
You know, there is a lot of literature - though not uncontested - on "occupational inheritance", i.e., if your mom was a cashier, you're more likely to be one. We've all heard stories of that boy from the wrong side of the tracks who became CEO, but it's more likely that you will follow in your parents' footsteps. Some of that has to do with opportunities for "apprenticeship" in the craft, but some of it has to do with the social capital pretzel was referring to.
The argument goes that the opportunities we have in life are strongly linked to one's ability to operate adeptly in the circles where "successful" people congregate. Part of that ability comes from having shared experience and even vocuabulary, and you acquire the vocabulary that Tommy next door has if you don't have money to pursue an enriched upbringing.
I'd like to think those of us without modest means can compensate by enriching our families with free and inexpensive experiences like museums and nature hikes. (Of course, now they've instituted parking fees for many community parks here in BC, so unless you have 5 bucks you can't take your kids to the beach for the day. At least not in the car!)
|
|
stressedmomma
Newbie
Joined: 18/April/2005
Location: Canada
Points: 16
|
Post Options
Thanks(0)
Quote Reply
Posted: 18/April/2005 at 6:29pm |
I meant "you can't acquire the vocabulary that Tommy next door has if you don't have money to pursue an enriched upbringing..."
sorry bout that.
|
|