The diversity of pro-lifers
by Carder
I am not just prolife…. I consider myself whole life.
Do I support the SNAP program? Yes.
Do I support Headstart? Yes.
Do I support universal healthcare for children? Yes.
Do I support WIC? Yes.
Do I support the Medicaid program for those who are desperately impoverished and pregnant women? Yes.
Do I support the death penalty? No.
Do I support unjust wars? No.
Would I take ANY child into my home who was neglected? Yes. We are in the process of adopting through the foster care system.
Would I take ANY pregnant mom into my home who was homeless? Absolutely. My family has supported many pregnant mothers.
Moral of the story…don’t stereotype pro-lifers and put us in a box. We are not all the same.
~ Pro-life advocate Abby Johnson, via her Facebook page, November 15
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Awesome…yes we all differ. I would do what I could. I protest abortion clinics.
Right on!
Good for her.
She is a wonder. And all of us must do our part to help others! It can be done. Many hand make light work. If everyone pitches in with help to others in need, we can make a real impact.
Abortion Barbie says that she is pro-life, because she also supports many of those things.
Another thing they have in common: Abby supports those things with Abby’s money. And Abortion Barbie supports those things with Abby’s money.
But Abortion Barbie is a liar. No one can say that she is PRO-LIFE as long as she supports the killing of children in the womb “on demand and without apology.” This is anti-human, no matter how many other normal human enthusiasms she may support.
Abortion Barbie says that she is pro-life, because she also supports many of those things.
When Barky was running the first time, a Gang of Four (volunteers) came to my house a second time because I said that I wasn’t sure I was going to vote for him. When I asked about abortion, they said that he is “pro-life and pro-choice.” Uh, yeah.
I have to hand it to the Dems — they had a great ground game going. The Republicans had NONE, at least in Philadelphia.
Love that expression “whole life . . .”
“When I asked about abortion, they said that he is “pro-life and pro-choice.””
So in other words,they wanted you to vote for a man who doesn’t know what simple words mean.
You’ve got to admit, “He’s pro-life and pro-choice” sure sounds better than “That’s above his pay grade.”
I hate this mindset that if you don’t support welfare/socialized programs that you somehow don’t care about the poor. I’ve seen welfare destroy families, morals etc… welfare isn’t any way for anyone to live. I want to help the poor but I prefer to do it one on one with a helping hand, a job, food, clothes, friendship than a government check with no strings attached.
Jesus gave the job of helping the orphaned and widowed and the poor to the church. As a Christian that is what I support.
This mother who chose life outside of PP is due to give birth next month and I shared this story before but a church bought her family a minivan since their car died (which was how pro-lifers got to help them and take them away from PP). We have bought all the baby things she needs, bought them groceries etc… we did it all with our contributions. No one was forced to hand their money over. We did it out of the love for Christ that we have in our hearts. And there is an emotional connection with this mom that a welfare check could never provide. She knows she has real friends who care about her and her children.
“I hate this mindset that if you don’t support welfare/socialized programs that you somehow don’t care about the poor. I’ve seen welfare destroy families, morals etc… welfare isn’t any way for anyone to live. I want to help the poor but I prefer to do it one on one with a helping hand, a job, food, clothes, friendship than a government check with no strings attached. ”
I really don’t understand where the “welfare checks constantly with no strings attached” meme comes from. The only cash assistance I can think of is TANF, and TANF depends on you taking classes and actually looking for a job. SNAP and Section 8 are “no strings” I guess, but they aren’t cash, they are for specific things like feeding and housing kids.
And that’s a lovely story about the pregnant mom and I’m glad you are able to help her. I really mean that sincerely. Now, what about the other 50 million or so people in poverty in the US? Do the churches even have enough money? Do people actually even care? Take it from someone who was homeless, usually people will feed you, it’s actually plenty difficult to actually starve in the US (unless you’re a child or disabled and unable to get your food). But getting a job (sometimes people will help, but not really common), paying for your housing or actually finding a place, and most importantly medical care are not something that churches tend to do. Can churches eat the millions and millions of dollar in medical care that low income people need? I don’t think there are enough regular church attendees or charitable volunteers in the country to afford that. Are charities able to pay for rehab? Can charities treat people for cancer? You might not get why people think that socialized programs are a good idea (to an extent, I much prefer local, privately ran but tax money assisted charities), but I don’t get how you guys can look at the need and be like, “eh, it will be fine, charities totally got it”. And don’t say “less taxes and more people will help” because that’s total crap.
And I do agree with you that having a personal connection with the people you are helping does a lot of good compared to getting a check (as long as the person is getting what they need physically, that emotional connection is invaluable). That’s part of the reason I prefer local charities/non-profits/government agencies to help.
Jack – just because the problems are overwhelming, doesn’t mean that we give up….we need to keep trying. as you say: Local solutions to local problems.
My husband and I are hiring a young man (father of 4) who is now out of work. We are trying to help him until he gets a regular job. we cant do this all the time or for every person, but for this man and his family, it’s making all the difference in the world.
We are trying to make good connections for this family, and we are considering a car also (but, silly me, I want a dealership to donate a very good used van for his family). We will see…
If we all do what we can to help others – either through the agencies, churches or by volunteering, we do have an impact. This couple wanted to be married, and decided on a church wedding instead of living together. They are trying to make an honest living instead of turning to the alternative. Everyone can improve, and everyone can help.
A little can go a long way.
I wasn’t saying anyone should “give up”, and I’m well aware we can’t reach everyone right away. Mostly when I complain about the “charities can take care of it” stuff I’m talking about medical care and housing. Other, more temporary things, are much easier for charities to handle even without governmental assistance (clothing, a temp job, a car), but for something like medical insurance and housing I don’t think there is a church out there that can afford to eat the millions, literally millions, of dollars in need.
What happens when that father of four gets cancer or a serious accident without medical insurance? Who’s paying the hundreds of thousands and possibly millions in treatment for him? How’s he gonna work himself out of poverty when he’ll literally never be out of debt, ever, for the rest of his life if that happens. And with housing, some people CAN’T work, where are they going to live? I don’t think a church can pay 10K a year for housing for each disabled person or impoverished senior in their small area, and that’s not even counting big cities where the rent is higher and the need is greater. Foods a little easier to get hold of when you’re poor, but if you think of a small family spending $300 a month on groceries, times that by however much need there is in your community, it’s just too much.
I can see how some things definitely need to be more local, but some things I think are pretty much impossible for charities and churches to afford. That’s why I think single payer healthcare has to exist, I simply don’t see another way to keep healthcare affordable and available to everyone.
I really don’t understand where the “welfare checks constantly with no strings attached” meme comes from. The only cash assistance I can think of is TANF, and TANF depends on you taking classes and actually looking for a job. SNAP and Section 8 are “no strings” I guess, but they aren’t cash, they are for specific things like feeding and housing kids.
Joy, during the weekend I work with people with serious psychiatric disorders. I have one too, but I guess I’m considered “high functioning.” Most of my clients have been in institutions most of their lives, many did not complete high school, others have been abused as children or by spouses. One woman’s husband told her he was going to “put her in her grave.” They take at least four or five, sometimes more, medications. Most are schizophrenic. The program I work for is an SIL (supported independent living). They pay a portion of their social security checks for rent; the rest is subsidized by the government. The apartments aren’t in a nice neighborhood, but they have a decent place to live. They only get about 700 a month or so in SSI since most never worked and they also get SNAP. Without these programs, they would be homeless. A few work part-time, but most of them are unemployed and few have any marketable skills. There are thousands of chronically mentally ill people like them throughout the country, and many of them are on the street. Can churches feed and house these people?
I totally forgot about SSI, phillymiss, that’s another one that’s cash assistance. It’s NOT no strings though, you only qualify if you’re disabled and have barely any income I believe. And then there are seniors and their Social Security income, which is stuff they paid into their entire lives, so I don’t think that’s “no strings” either.
It doesn’t matter what the government does about its welfare programs.
I’ve got to open up my home and my wallet and donate my hours, to the pregnancy resource center in my area, to help the women and children in my area.
There may be some paradoxes involved. It seems obvious to me that the more $$$ government spends on Title X and contraception, then the more young and unwed mothers we will need to help. But we can’t wait for government to get it right…. we have our own duty to fulfill.
Jack, when I say “no strings attached” I mean there isn’t anyone there making sure they’re making good moral choices or living appropriately. I lived in the hood. I worked in the hood. I’ve seen the abuse of the welfare system and I’ve seen people make stupid choices over and over and over and then hard-working people who make good choices and have jobs have part of their paychecks absconded with and handed over to those who make poor choices. And those who made the bad choices don’t have to answer to a darn soul, certainly not to the taxpayer who rolls out of bed each morning to go to work.
Welfare does not lift people out of poverty. It doesn’t forge human relationships. I’ve seen it. So you can argue all you want about all the millions that need welfare. It is no gift. It is no friend. It fractures. And it isn’t any way to live.
I know many who are generous people who want to help the poor. But when you forcibly take money from them and give it to “the poor” (some of whom AREN’T poor, just poor in morals and poor in responsibility) you take away their right to be blessed for helping the poor. By forcing them to donate money to “the poor” you take away their free will.
I say if people WANT to donate part of their paycheck they should be allowed that option but no one should be FORCED to be charitable and certainly not forced to be charitable in a way that they don’t agree with.
And now the welfare segment of our population is growing. If everyone is on welfare who is paying into it? How can such a scheme continue? Soon you run out of folks who can pay into it.
Sydney,
Well first off, who is deciding “moral choices”? People think being gay is immoral, does that mean that a disabled gay person who is in a relationship doesn’t deserve assistance? I am having trouble figuring out your complaint there. Plenty of people who make bad choices also do it from mental problems or lack of education, and the culture they are surrounded by certainly makes a difference as well. Education is key, not telling them that they are immoral and don’t deserve help or whatever.
Where are you getting that I think our welfare system is correct? I actually don’t. I don’t like federal agencies just handing out assistance without taking a look at the real problem. DHS offices are impersonal and one size fits all, where poverty for each individual is different. I also don’t like that there’s a lack of education and job training and such. It needs an overhaul, but it can’t go away.
You’re also painting with a broad brush, I’ve seen people use welfare to get themselves to where at least they don’t require assistance. They wouldn’t have been able to do that without help. I was lucky enough to have my ex’s dad who decided to pay for my rehab and such, but the vast majority of the kids I was homeless with didn’t have anyone who took that kind of interest in them and also had the financial resources to help them. And the people who made it out besides me had to take advantage of the help that is in place (woefully inadequate, most of those kids are dead or in prison now, but some made it out).
My main concern is medical care, which, I’m sorry, you guys simply can’t and won’t pay for. It’s too expensive the way things are now, and you cannot possibly meet the need. I think we can control costs and still have people able to access care with single payer, and I really don’t see a workable alternative. And then there’s the other, monthly expenses like housing that I can’t see charities being capable of providing for.
I don’t care about people being “blessed”, at all. The people who do charity to want to be “blessed” are people I think hurt way more than help. You can always tell who is like that too, and it’s not appreciated and it doesn’t help forge any type of relationship.
And we are “forced” to provide things like roads and police departments and hospitals and such, but I’ve only heard the most stringent libertarians argue that these things aren’t necessary for a healthy society. I don’t see why anyone would think why “forcing” people to help those who aren’t going to be helped otherwise is any different.
Phillymiss said : “When I asked about abortion, they said that he is “pro-life and pro-choice.””
You should have replied – “Oh – you mean he’s double-minded!”
Jack, it is always easy to be charitable with other peoples money. To put it bluntly…if you didn’t earn it you shouldn’t dictate how it is spent. If people want to donate money to the welfare program then they should be able to. I don’t, so I shouldn’t have to.
I want to help the poor and needy and I do but how is it fair for me to force others to do so? How can I be charitable with money that isn’t my own? That isn’t right.
Should money and food be taken away from my own babies to go to pay some guy strung out on drugs? I’ve never done drugs. But I should pay the price when I didn’t make the poor choice? Too many on welfare make continual bad choices. I lived in the hood so you can tell me that people pull themselves out of it and I’m sure thats true for some but that isn’t true for the majority. It becomes easy money, a way of life and there is no responsibility. And YES I’m talking sexual decisions. Women keep sleeping around, men keep making babies they don’t care for, people keep doing drugs. It’s a mess. And welfare payrolls that. And I shouldn’t have to.
If I want to help a single mom then I should get to decide to help her. I want to give her money for clothes for her kids or money for groceries. I don’t want to give her a blank check so she can go get her nails done or buy expensive purses (and I’ve SEEN the moms do this. I saw them use the EBT cards to get the stuff they were allowed to get and then saw them take their cash to go get their hair and nails done and fancy clothes and heck, renting a car for the day cause they were tired of the one they were driving).
The thing that ticked me off the most is that I lived poverty level. I went to bed hungry some nights. But I would NOT take from others. I worked TWO JOBS to make ends meet. I had a lot of credit card debt–not from shopping but just buying food, just getting my car fixed, just desperately trying to survive. And it took me many years but I paid all that debt off. I didn’t walk away from my responsibility. And why I worked and worked to take care of myself I saw women sitting on their butts all day, lounging around watching soaps and getting new clothes while I shopped second hand, getting their nails done, getting new cell phones when I didn’t even have one yet, buying cigarettes and meanwhile their kids looked like dirty rugrats. They couldn’t even bother to wash their kids or properly feed and clothe them. So I have a chip on my shoulder with the whole welfare system because it is abused.
It isn’t government’s job to take from others and dole it out to ANYBODY whether it be welfare folks or bankers. If you want to help the poor Jack do it with YOUR money. It isn’t a grand gesture from you to be charitable with OTHER people’s money. It’s always easy to spend money when it isn’t yours. Hasn’t congress proved that?
How did I know it was about drugs? Listen, addiction is a public health issue and an illness. It always has been, and it always will be. We can pretend it’s a character flaw, or we can acknowledge it’s a public health issue. The vast majority of drug addicts I’ve known either came from screwed up families and were raised around drugs, or they became addicts after being prescribed pain pills by a physician after an injury. It really is an illness no matter what people who have never done drugs say. It literally rewires your brain. Ask any addiction specialist (and no, not pastors who have no education or training in addiction medicine). The way we treat drug addicts creates more of them. I agree that giving drug addicts money with no work on their issues is hurting them and all of us and not helping. But letting them go without treatment and be homeless doesn’t work either.
Sexual choices… that’s where I am talking about education. You’re just kinda ranting against things I don’t necessarily disagree with and I haven’t said. The difference is I don’t care that I’m poor and work hard and they don’t. It doesn’t make me angry. It makes me want to fix it. Fixing it doesn’t involve suddenly cutting them off and saying “hey get a job”, it requires education, and life and job skills that make them employable. It also requires an entirely different culture. The “culture of poverty” is a real thing, people are born into it, never see anything different, and never get out. Like I said, education is key. And you are vastly overstating the amount that abuse the system, just like many conservatives do. I’m very glad you’re better than all those people, but forgive me if I don’t want to toss them away.
And I don’t care about “grand gestures” or looking good, and I don’t have respect for people who do care about those things when it comes to charity. I do care about effectiveness and improving things. I think single payer healthcare and an overhaul of the welfare system with a focus on education and localized, targeted support would improve things. The fact is your church isn’t going to do it, even if they care they simply can’t fix our healthcare system or have the resources to get the help that people really need.
Here’s some stats. You guys love anecdotes about the evil poor and welfare abusers and ignore facts: http://www.cbpp.org/files/2-10-12pov.pdf
NINE TENTHS of “entitlements” go to the elderly, the disabled, and working households (and the smallest chunk of that is the workers). One out of ten is a working, able bodied adult who isn’t working, and the benefits that this section receives includes things like unemployment. Hopefully you don’t disagree that people are entitled to the unemployment they paid into while they were working. If my previous conversations on this blog are any indications are any indication, these numbers won’t mean anything to you.
Here’s another thing that shows the amount of “entitlements” each income bracket receives versus tax breaks each income bracket receives if you want to look at it in a different way.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/03/13/business/Who-Gets-the-Breaks-and-Benefits.html?_r=0
Phillymiss said : “When I asked about abortion, they said that he is “pro-life and pro-choice.”” You should have replied – “Oh – you mean he’s double-minded!”
Or you could have relpied ‘ “Oh – you mean he has a forked-tongue!”
I can’t type. In my previous comment “one out ten is an able bodied adult who isn’t working, not a working able bodied adult who isn’t working. Lol.
Jack, there is SSI and SSDI. SSI is for people who have little or no work experience and they don’t get much. SSDI is based on your previous income. I was receiving SSDI when I was too sick to work and it was about $1,000 a month.
I lived in the hood. I worked in the hood. I’ve seen the abuse of the welfare system and I’ve seen people make stupid choices over and over and over and then hard-working people who make good choices and have jobs have part of their paychecks absconded with and handed over to those who make poor choices.
I hear what you are saying. I have seen plenty of people who abuse the system. I have gone to homes that look like a bomb hit them, yet there is an Escalade parked outside and all the kids have on designer sneakers, even though there is no heat in the house. I have also seen 2nd and 3rd generations that are involved with my agency and expect us to get them free housing, clothing, Christmas toys for their kids, etc.
But on the other hand, there are people who do really need help. Conservatives tend to demonize the poor and liberals often romanticize them — the truth is somewhere in-between.
“I have also seen 2nd and 3rd generations that are involved with my agency and expect us to get them free housing, clothing, Christmas toys for their kids, etc. ”
But that’s the thing, is those people do need help, in that they need to be shown that there is a different way of life. People grow up in an environment where everyone has food stamps and gets housing, and no one uses their money wisely, and they really never learn differently. How do people learn to budget their money and spend it wisely, and get a work ethic? Usually their parents, I had to learn as an adult from my FIL, but not everyone has a role model like that. These kids that are growing up in deprived environments where their parents put other things over their child’s well-being, and random stuff over necessities, aren’t learning how to properly care for themselves or run a household, and they certainly aren’t learning how to work hard or value education. And I think a lot of people have realized that the “American dream” is pretty much a lie for the vast majority of people, you can work hard your entire life and still die in massive debt, so there’s an element of just giving up too. And conservatives massively overstate the amount of waste and welfare cheats anyway. Probably to get attention away from the waste and welfare cheats that the GOP lets big business get away with.
And I don’t think liberals really romanticize the poor. I think they are just realistic that people are products of their environments and have more going on than just “lazy, worthless, leech” whatever pejoratives they like for the day. And at least liberals bother to acknowledge that being born into crushing poverty means kids are getting some social messages that other kids don’t get (that welfare is normal, that drugs are a way of escaping this world, etc). They’ve also linked poverty to depression, though that is a chicken and the egg thing, do people become depressed by being deprived and poor or does having depression make you more likely to become deprived and poor? Who knows? All I know is this vitriol that I see from conservatives is unwarranted and cruel, and absolutely useless.
Oh, and there is absolutely no difference between trust fund babies and “leeches” on welfare (born into it people neither disabled or working). One of those groups were just lucky enough to be born into a family where Daddy is rich enough to indulge their laziness.
Interesting summation Jack: Our children have trust funds (various forms of it) but both of us work our keisters off (are comfortable but not rich) and our sons do what is required of them. The only difference is that our children know that this money has to be earned by them to receive later (through doing well in school, doing their share of household chores, fulfilling their responsibilities to the family and others, not getting into trouble, etc.).
Those on welfare are in a little different receiving end, as the assistance is pretty much gratis with not well defined parameters of expectations.
But like everywhere in life, there are those in both categories that don’t take anything for granted and yet there are those that will abuse their privileges no matter what.
“The only difference is that our children know that this money has to be earned by them to receive later (through doing well in school, doing their share of household chores, fulfilling their responsibilities to the family and others, not getting into trouble, etc.).”
You aren’t the families I am talking about, obviously. I’m talking about the kid who skates through life and Daddy and Mommy pay his/her way out of trouble and into good schools (or give up and let them go to the party school because deep down they know Junior is super lazy and just wants to drink). There are a lot of them in Florida because of FSU (famous party school), and they all wind up in Miami buying cocaine from street dealers on the weekends in their brand new convertibles because they have too much money and too little sense. Then Daddy hands them the family business when they are grown (at least in name, if he’s smart he’ll have someone else manage it). These people are the exact same type of people who skate by on welfare. But they don’t define rich kids and and neither do welfare leeches define poor kids. But only one category constantly gets demonized and judged.
And welfare isn’t “gratis”, most programs besides food stamps have a limit either by time or employment or income. I think a real concern in cutting people off just when they start to get to a place where they can scrape by, I think you’d have less people stuck in the “working, but still on welfare” trap, if the benefits more gradually tapered off. There’s no real incentive to do better if your life is going to suck MORE if you work ten more hours a week. And also, one of the main things that gets people out of poverty is the ability to save for emergencies and such, which much assistance doesn’t allow you to do, they cut you off if you have minimal savings. It’s just insanity to me, you can’t climb out of poverty if you have no buffer against emergencies. But you can’t get help to climb out of poverty if you try to reach the place where you have an emergency fund that means if you get hurt or lose your job, you won’t be homeless in a month.
“There’s no real incentive to do better if your life is going to suck MORE if you work ten more hours a week. ”
I have witnessed so many individuals, within my family even, reach the top by exactly doing what you discredit in your statement above Jack. This especially applies to those under the poverty bracket that can earn overtime to supplement their regular paycheck. How is life going to suck more if you can earn extra money and stay out of trouble doing so? Your statement exemplifies the hard truth of what actually keeps some in poverty: not having the desire to work their keisters off. This type of mentality does not help.
Please elaborate on how life might suck MORE if one works 10 more hours a week?
“Please elaborate on how life might suck MORE if one works 10 more hours a week? ”
Okay, say you work a $10/hour job, and you currently work 30 hour weeks, and you are a single parent. Say you qualify for childcare assistance, and you don’t have relatives that are home during your work hours to watch your children. Childcare in my area at least, unless you want to leave your children with random people, can be anywhere from $600 to $1300 a month on the cheaper end, roughly. So, tell me, how would someone be able to work 40 hours a week, if it knocked them out of the bracket that gets childcare assistance, if that $400 (before taxes) a month doesn’t even cover what the childcare will cost you to be able to work at all? And this isn’t a scenario I just made up, that’s the position several of the single moms in my apartment complex are dealing with right now (luckily, some of them have safe family, but others do not). It’s a catch-22 and it’s hard to find a solution. Lucky I don’t deal with that because my job I have now allows me to keep my daughter with me most of the time and my son’s in school a lot of the day, but it’s a real problem for single parents. And it means I personally don’t have many choices, because if I find a job that can pay more I would have to get childcare, which would eat up the money I save by being able to keep my kid with me and not pay for someone to watch her, and it’s just a never-ending, frustrating place to be stuck.
Then there’s the food stamp issue, making just a little bit more can knock down your benefits to nearly zero, which leaves you less money than you started with when you have to buy groceries (and remember you’re a lot of times talking about people who have never been taught how to shop smart or even cook decent balanced meals).
And like I said, there’s no incentive to save, because if you manage to put a little away in preparation to go to school or anything that might improve your lot in life in the future, you’ll be disqualified from the benefits, which means you have to use your savings to pay the bills that you no longer have help with, even if your income situation hasn’t improved at all.
And I know people who work fast food like 60 – 80 hours a week and are still broke, because they don’t have the job skills to get a better position and fast food pays minimum, so don’t pretend that people don’t “desire to work”. Plenty do, it’s just that there’s nowhere to go especially if they don’t believe in taking public assistance if it’s at all avoidable. And don’t pretend all “comfortable” people work hard either. I’ve met many, I used to sell drugs to some, and sometimes it’s just an accident of birth that they aren’t living in the ghetto. It’s just really, really to pick on poor people versus the people who are exactly the same but born into comfort instead of deprivation.
And that’s not even mentioning the burden of not having health insurance. You get sick once or have a chronic condition, and there’s not much you can do. Want to pay your 10K medical bill off? There goes your chance to put anything aside and get to a place where you can actually afford health insurance so it doesn’t happen again. They can garnish up to 25% of your paycheck, which is just insane at a certain income level. There’s no deferment so you can pay your bill when you’re in a better income situation. That’s why I firmly believe that not having a single payer healthcare system creates a permanent underclass, you really can’t get ill or get hurt without messing up your chances to get out of poverty for decades.
And god forbid you have drug problems at a young age, that will mess you up for life. Have you ever tried to get a job with a drug charge from when you were eighteen? Forget that, have you ever tried to get an apartment with a drug charge? Dude my boss won’t allow me to rent to people with previous drug convictions, even knowing that I have one and cleaned myself up fine. This is how these problems self-perpetuate, by punishing people for years and years after they’ve left their crime and drug problems behind. How can you get ahead if a youthful indiscretion or addiction means your applications get tossed no matter your work history, your character, or anything?
You went off on a tangent from your original statement and my request to elaborate on working more but that is okay. I agree with you that there are plenty of obstacles some of which are of our own doing and some of which are institutional in nature.
When I was growing up in Eastern Europe, the major thought was “doomed if I do and doomed if I don’t.” So what is the alternative???