zlacker

I grew up on welfare in a shit neighborhood, but now I'm an upper middle class engineer. Trust me, poor people need the help. We are all indirectly benefitting from people getting out of poverty.

>>TheBig+(OP)
Unsympathetic take. Lots of people can use help. Just because you're on welfare doesn't necessarily mean your financial position is any worse (especially as a dependant).

I'm not from the US, but here in the UK when I when went to college and university the state would give students several thousand pounds a year for their parents being unemployed. My dad was a postman who used to do delivery driving on the weekend for extra cash for my family. We were poor, although I was deemed "wealthy" enough to be given no help because my dad made around £30,000.

The end result of this was that I basically the poorest person I knew from 16-21 because my friends either had unemployed parents so were given thousands of pounds to spend on laptops and things to help them get through university, or had rich parents who could buy stuff for them.

Because my dad was a postman I ended up having to work two jobs while at university and had to go into my overdraft almost every month.

Looking back now I am grateful for that hellish 5 years since I actually gained a lot of professional experience in tech during that time, but it came at the cost of severe depression and physical exhaustion. I cannot explain how difficult this period of time was for me. It shaped who I am today but I wished daily that my dad was unemployed so I didn't have to go through it.

>>kypro+Pf1
Once at college I did feel the playing field was even, but you may be missing a lot of context before that. I grew up on welfare with a single mother, in a neighborhood where all of my friends were on welfare with single mothers. Only a handful of my neighborhood friends went to college. NONE of my hometown friends are STEM people. That stuff isn't even close to their radars. It took me years in college to get out of a petty criminal mindset and just be a regular person. I still don't feel like I belong amongst "rich" people (aka middle class).

>>TheBig+pZ1
> NONE of my hometown friends are STEM people. That stuff isn't even close to their radars. It took me years in college to get out of a petty criminal mindset and just be a regular person. I still don't feel like I belong amongst "rich" people (aka middle class).

I relate to this a lot. All of my friends were on welfare growing up. My family were poor, but my dad did work a crappy job.

I guess that's what upset me – growing up I never felt privileged at all. I remember growing up there was a kid on my street who's dad was a builder and who's mum worked in a school and I thought they were super rich because they had two cars lmao... It was just kinda annoying to be punished for my dad having a job as a postman, and arguably me having to work two jobs while trying to get a degree is why I didn't do that great at uni. If I had government support or if my parents were richer I wouldn't have been in that position.

> I still don't feel like I belong amongst "rich" people (aka middle class).

This is something I have written endless comments about here. Trying to emulate being middle class today is very hard for me. I don't know if you find this, but middle class people are so polite and so well spoken compared to what I'm used to. They're also very sensitive and have a different sense of humour to what comes naturally to me. That often makes it difficult to fit in. Also trying to talk about my personal life is nearly impossible because middle class people don't have a good understanding of drug abuse and criminality.

Super cool that you broke the cycle and are doing well though man!