Boston Gal's Open Wallet

Interesting topic! I think that the path he chose was definitely dependent on him being male. Obviously, a woman couldn't have done the same thing. Maybe there would be an equivalent track for women, like clerical work or something, but I don't know if it would pay as well. I think more than anything, his upbringing and education helped him out. It's hard to take a kid from an upper class home with great parents and recreate a true "American Dream" situation like he set out to do. I also wonder if he had student loans to pay for from college. A $500/month payment can make or break someone right out of college.

Still, I don't want to take away from what he did. I'm sure it took a lot of hard work and cajones.

 

I think what he did was great. Not clear how this person got through college---did mom or dad help him out? Now if you add an average student debt load or some credit card debt to his start out balance like with so many other recent college grads have, and someone in his position is still able to do similarly well, then yes I too would believe that the American Dream can still exist for the recent college graduate.

 

His ability to make it is not typical of the average homeless person with only $25 in their pocket. He didn't have untreated mental illness or addiction, he didn't have disease, he didn't have a family history of poverty and internal beliefs that he was poor and that there was no way out. What he had in his favor instead was a college education, an understanding of economics, and(although this may not sound kosher) he's a young, white, male. His ability to make it in this world is no way representative of the poor and the homeless you see in Any City, USA.

 

I believe his success had more to do with his positive attitude than anything else. My impression of Barbara Ehrehreich's Nickel and Dimed is that she set out to prove how bad it was at the bottom (which she did). She was just recreating the low wage existence, not trying to move beyond it. It appears that this kid (caveat: I have not read his book, only Boston Gal's post) set out with a more positive attitude and expected to prove that it was possible to move up from nothing.

 

The people living in true poverty can't just drop out of their life to attend to a family illness. Real people living in real poverty would have to deal with the reality of supporting a ill family member. That reality would include taking time off of work to attend to the sick person and incurring excessive medical expenses in most cases without medical insurance. His silly little game of working for 10 months proves that people can work their way out of poverty is ridiculous.

 

Wow, feminism must be dead. "There's no way a woman could have done what he did because he was a man." Ridiculous!
The difference between him and Barbara Ehrenreich is that she absolutely refused to use anything to her advantage. He aimed to start at basically nothing and work his way up to a certain point. She aimed to start at nothing and remain at nothing to make a point. Ehrenreich could have used shelters--there are far more shelters available out there for men than for women!
Nothing could have stopped her from using food stamps, either.
Furthermore, Ehrenreich moved from city to city and in her first experiment in Florida, she turned down a higher paying job her boss offered her because she spoke English in favor of the lowest paying job.
Ehrenreich could have achieved what he had achieved, had it been her goal at all. But her goal was not to "make it", her goal was to show how it was impossible to make it. Being female has nothing to do with it.

 

I think what Ms M&P said is key. It's his background that helped him achieve what he did. Now take someone who possibly isn't quite as smart or resourceful and the results are probably going to be far different...man or woman.

I think the question isn't can someone with skill and talent make it in our society but instead what can be done about the growing underclass in our society. There's a huge number of people out there that aren't getting anywhere for whatever reason. And many don't seem to be motivated to try to change their situation. What can be done about those people? We can ignore them for now but if their numbers keep growing, eventually we'll get to the point where they can't be ignored.

 

anonymous, you seem to have missed the fact that this project wasn't about the recent college graduate. He didn't mention his college degree in his job search, and the jobs for which he was hired were ones that didn't require a college education. The whole point of his project and Barbara Ehrenreich's project in "Nickel and Dimed" were to explore what kinds of opportunities are available to those in our society who don't have the benefit of a college education. This isn't to say that excessive college debt isn't a problem for today's new college grads, but that's not the issue that Adam Shepard and Barbara Ehrenreich were seeking to publicize in their efforts.

 

While he may not have mentioned his college education, it no doubt was invaluable to him in his success. He no doubt spoke like a college graduate and even in old and ragged goodwill clothing, looked like someone with a "cultured" background. He also knew more about the world and what to expect and demand from it than someone who had not had his upbringing and experience. While I applaud him for his efforts, his determination that "anyone can do it" is inherently flawed

 

What a great topic for conversation on a money blog. This is definitely a book I want to read, but I don't think it will take away the importance of nickle and dimed because nickle and dimed was about seeing whether a person could really survive on a minimum wage type job -- walmart, maid service, waiter at denny's -- I don't think it was meant to show that the american dream is no longer possible. It's wonderful that this man was able to achieve his goals so quickly, but it doesn't answer the question of whether our society as it stands -- with so many cheap, disposable, convenient goods -- can continue without having a working class of people too poor to afford to get by. And, Ehrehreich's book showed that the minimum wage jobs sap so much time and energy from the people doing them, that the people who take them get stuck and aren't able to move beyond that lifestyle. I'm also looking forward to finding out in the book whether he had health insurance and if so, whether he paid for his own, because that's definitely a crippling financial burden for low wage workers.

 

I am not trying to say women can't save money or improve their financial situation - of course they can!

I am saying that for a woman, arriving in a crime ridden part of an unfamiliar town late at night with only $25 in her pocket, with backpack on and sleeping role in her hand - would have meant a swift end to the experiment.

 

I had the same reaction to Nickled and Dimed that he did -- the author came across as whiny and not willing to help herself. I remember a few passages in which she *knew* of ways to get help, but simply found it inconvenient to do so. I also remember times when she actively promoted others' demise, by encouraging fellow Walmart workers to start talking about unionization.

So what does that mean? To me it means that most anyone *can* get out of these situations, but some of us have the drive and motivation, either from nature or nurture, while others do not. This guy did.

I'm not sure what I think of those who aren't willing to help themselves. Life isn't supposed to be easy.

 

Hmmm. I'd hate for people to read this book and get the wrong idea: that it's easy to get from homelessness to success. Being young, male, single, and living in an urban area gave the author a huge advantage.

Unfortunately, many of the homeless people I know are young, may or may not have a high school diploma under their belt, and are single parents. This experiment does not apply. It's just not valid.

And, not to put too fine a point on it, he "worked" for a year to have material for this book, basically making an investment of his time and energy to produce a product that will get him closer to the American dream than many other people. It's not like he'll be donating his royalty checks to his local homeless shelter.

 

re: the use of food stamps.

In order to qualify for food stamps, a household cannot have over $2000 in countable resources, including a bank account.

Assuming that the kid was not defrauding the system and did not have in fact any resources under his own name, he was able to qualify for food stamps in a way that Barbara Ehrehreich probably could not (given that she was a previously published author and NOT 22).

What the author proves is that it is still possible to "succeed" in America if you are SINGLE and YOUNG. Millions of undocumented aliens prove that every year. This man had the additional benefits of NOT being ILLEGAL and being WHITE. (Not to mention, being educated, which would help with the next step of going from working class to lower middle class. I'm sure the author commanded a higher salary as a mover because of his speech patterns and his appearance.)

In fact, I'm willing to say that you take away any one or even two of the aforementioned attributes, and you can still climb relatively easily. The question is what happens when you are none of the four, and more importantly, as 7:21 said, people who are truly poor cannot stop to take care of family members, and often, it is something like a family illness that plunges people into poverty (and with debt, which would have knocked out a lot of what the writer was able to achieve).

And you know what, apparently, the best thing to do if you want to succeed in America is to just do something sensationalistic, like this young man, and then milk it for all the publicity it can generate. You can bet that this book will get him much further than the $5000 in savings.

 

I agree with the points you brought up. It is different for a man and a woman. I take my safety seriously and notice some spending decisions are different for man and woman. For example, I'd spend the extra money for a taxi late at night whiles my guy friends don't.

Also, being the point about physical labour is right as well. Again not something everyone at any age can do.

Interest post!

 

The people living in true poverty can't just drop out of their life to attend to a family illness. Real people living in real poverty would have to deal with the reality of supporting a ill family member. That reality would include taking time off of work to attend to the sick person and incurring excessive medical expenses in most cases without medical insurance. His silly little game of working for 10 months proves that people can work their way out of poverty is ridiculous.

I agree. It's an interesting idea, but he basically manipulated the stated conditions. "I'm going to prove that I can make it starting with $25 and no safety net -- until I reach a point when having no safety net would cost me, at which time I'll quit the game and call it a success."

Why not continue the experiment and see how much of that $5000 he runs through in the remaining two months while taking off of work to visit and care for the sick family member?

 

When you read the second article he talks about getting into a physical fight with his roommate over his car (the roommate had permission to borrow it, but started taking it for hours at a time) - If the roommate had taken the car and crashed it - his 10 months of accumulated wealth would be gone due to replacing it and having to live without the roommate.

Basically he got lucky. When you are just starting out like that set backs generally occur and they become difficult to recover from, trapping you in that cycle of poverty.

If he only worked himself from day laborer to mover - he did not really set himself on the path of future financial stabilty (the true heart of the American Dream). If he had manged to jump to a job which paid as well as mover (or better) with benefits like healthcare, paid time off, etc. which did not rely on strength and energy (two resources that will quickly be depleated) then I would be more impressed by his conclusion.

But again, I have not read the book, so don't have a full view of his 10 month experiment.

 

If the roommate had taken the car and crashed it - his 10 months of accumulated wealth would be gone due to replacing it and having to live without the roommate.


Or if he ended up with an injury from that physical fight that required time off from work or medical bills,,,,

 

Interesting that just as his "American Dream" life started literally beating him up he finally gave up and went home.

 

He also says

1) that he lived for 70 days in a homeless shelter. That's more than two months. Assuming 3 months rent for living a dump (most people don't live in a homeless shelter) at a reasonable $600 a month, and that's $1800 from the $5k he's so proud of.

2) You can't live on ramen noodles forever. it's fine for an experiment, but let's get real here.

3) working as a furniture mover with no medical insurance is okay for a few months when you are a healthy 24 year old male, but that's not a realistic option for people who are older, or female.

4) he got at least one can of ass whoopin' opened on him during his experiment, is that the kind of ruff and tumble life that most people would consider successful?

 

I agree that this person is not representative of the 'typical' homeless in America - he is young, healthy, brought up with an education (whether you state you have a degree or not, you are trained to think and work differently than one without the benefit of college), likely good healthcare throughout his upbringing and no mental health, substance abuse, physical or intellectual disabilities.

He also did indeed exit stage left when the going got a teeny bit tough, and understood how to work within a system of aid that for so many is quite daunting and confounding.

Now, more interesting is the program Morgan Spurlock did a few years ago on TLC called "30 Days" - the first episode featured he and his girlfriend living on working class wages for 30 days to see how they'd fare. They started with a cheap apartment, no furniture, food, only the clothes on their backs. Morgan worked as a mover, laborer and landscaper, his g/f worked as a barista and bartender. They did not avail themselves of assistance that would not be typically available to the working poor - such as shelters, food stamps, etc. They did go to a church mission thrift store for furniture, clothing and household free or cheap.

What they found was this: One injury for Morgan on the job cost them $700 in ER visits and one UTI for his g/f cost them over $1000 as they had no insurance. Morgan had to cut back at work b/c of his injury and since he was a temp = no workers comp. G/f got a second job to help make up but in the end b/c of no medical coverage - i.e. medical bills, they finished the month significantly in the red.

I think that's the more accurate picture than what this budding novelist set out to paint as a picture. Yes, if you're young, reasonably educated, healthy both physically and mentally and don't experience major setbacks such as an injury or illness, loss of a key asset (car to get to work, mugging/theft = loss of income), or loss of a job - then you could do fine.

What you mostly learn though is that its' those unexpecteds that knock you flat - especially uninsured healthcare.

BTW there is a guy named Kevin Bordeaux who is chronically homeless due to mental illness who writes an insightful, well written blog - has been blogging for years now. His website is www.homelessguy.wordpress.org. I suggest you check it out.

JMHO

 

I think he made the point that
for a young healthy single male,
it's possible to do all right. He
got some breaks, yes, but there are
quite a few young healthy single
males playing victim out there. If
they would all stop using the
government trough, there would be
a lot more resources available to
the elderly, ill, and single moms
out there....

 

I draw some very different conclusions from this exercise than the author: Looks to me liking living proof that class, education, and race make a huge difference in outcomes. This guy is educated, young, healthy, kinda good looking, and articulate. Something also tells me (given the amount of publicity he's drumming up) that he's also very charismatic.

Those qualities will take you a long way in this world. The other key thing is that he had a safety net. If he'd been seriously injured or ill, somebody would have taken care of him, he would have had a roof over his head. Also, knowing that this was just an experiment immunized him from the kind of hopelessness and despair that can accompany poverty.

So, I guess he has a point when he says its all about attitude. But, having the kind of entitled attitude that comes with... well... being him, does not happen in a vacuum.

I think its sad that this was all done in self-interest - basically a way to jump start his writing career, rather than any real desire to understand and help the poor.

 

I'd be more compelled if this were conducted with a black man, white man, black woman, and white woman. I'd also like to replicate that group and add one or two kids to each.

Color, sex, education, and background are just a few things that come into play when discussing the extremely complex topic of poverty. No one here can tell me that white male privledge didn't come into play with him getting some of the opportunties he did. I'm convinced that if a young black male had done the same thing in the same location, we'd be reading a different story. Same for women, as pointed out by previous posters, and especially women with children.

 

Everyone's making excellent points and poking great holes in this guy's "success."

I love the comments about conveniently quitting the experiment to care for a sick family member (unexpected illness being the #1 reason for bankruptcy), not having health insurance yet getting into a fisticuffs with a roommate (good thing he didn't need stitches), and being white/male/educated (yet he claims he's not using these advantages - sure!).

And of course the obvious points that only a healthy young man can get a [relatively] high paying job as a mover, and would feel safe walking around the "very dangerous city of North Charleston" on his way to a homeless shelter. Meanwhile, women would be stuck with minimum wage jobs as maids or waitresses at best, and could potentially be fighting off rape and worse in the situations he described.

Now I want to re-read Nickel & Dimed along with this guy's book. Glad he's getting famous from it at least and can parlay the experience into a cushy job motivating the youth of today. Ha!

 

I don't really understand what he proved. That you can pull yourself up from "poverty" over a ten month period, as long as you can stop your "experiment" when a family member gets sick. Um okay. For most people who live in poverty it's not an experiment they can stop when an obstacle appears. It's the emergencies, such as family members getting sick, that can make it hard for them to pull themselves out for the long term. Anyone can get ahead for a short period of time.

 

More details about the "family illness":

As it turned out, however, Shepard's experiment with working his way out of poverty did more than prepare him to write a book. It also prepared him for real-life circumstances when he was forced to return home 10 weeks early to care for his mother, who was battling a second bout of lymphoma and whose unemployment benefits had dried up.

"Perhaps the ultimate irony of my entire project," Shepard writes in his book, "my brother Erik and I had to come together to provide financial support for our mom. I was to head home to Raleigh, where Erik and I would split the costs on a three-bedroom apartment to look after my mom, to essentially do what I was doing in Charleston, except now it was for real, beyond the scope of my project."


So why the heck wasn't it factored into his "project"?

Ugh.

 

Well it looks like a lot of people are having fun poking holes in this guy's work. While the criticisms may have merit, did you criticize the Nickel and Dimed book as thoroughly because it certainly had it problems too. And as someone who lived for three years in a third world country I get amazed how people criticize what is available to people here to keep yourself above water.

To get ahead you have to take risks, and what happened to him showed how risky that life is. But just because he left the project early doesn't invalidate what he did.

 

It can be difficult, but it is possible for low income, middle aged women to work their way out of poverty into the middle class. Despite having to recover from major financial roadblocks, my mother did it as a single mother with two teenage boys.
My parents divorced in the early 80's. After the divorce, my mother was working through Grad school as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) in a metropolitan area. In those four years, her income from all sources ranged from $7,450 (1982) to $12,750 (1985). That would be about $15,926 and $24,525 respectively after adjusting for inflation.
As some people mentioned – an uninsured illness can be financially devastating. In the first year after my parent’s divorce, an unexpected injury with complications with two hospital stays overwhelmed what insurance my mother had. She lost almost all of the assets she had left over after her divorce.
The assets we had left were limited by her budget and what could fit in a three year old car and trailer – some books, typical kitchen contents, and clothes and a second hand stereo from the Salvation Army. Most of our furniture was homemade. I specifically remember buying some wood when we got to Ohio to make a homemade bunk bed with foam rubber “mattress”. Of course since we were not very skilled, even though we had it cross braced, it wobbled when we rolled over too aggressively or got in or out. It’s a good thing my brother and I are not sensitive to motion sickness!
Our family did have a few advantages that others may not have. For one thing, my mother is highly intelligent, has a good work ethic, and is financially creative. Being highly intelligent probably helped more in being creative than in the schooling since Mom’s degree was not one that lead to a highly paid job. There does not seem to be much demand for a specialist in 16th century French literature.
One way in which we did much better than those around us was a healthy dose of frugality. Unlike Adam, we never lived in a shelter – but we weren’t far from one. We did live in a slum because we could not afford anything else – it was the cheapest housing we could find. In some ways we did better than those around us because we were more frugal. We avoided foods that were processed (potato chips, alcohol, sodas, etc) or expensive (meat other than the occasional package of cheap hot dogs). Instead we cooked all our own food, especially things that were cheap and a long shelf life (like 50 lb. bags of rice, and yes, Ramen noodles). We also avoided unnecessary expenses – for a while when we were really short on cash, we did laundry in the bathtub and hung the clothes to dry on racks. Our budget was strictly cash based and ranked by priority – rent, gas for the car, groceries, then everything else. A careful person could probably do the same thing with credit cards. Cash just made it a little easier – when you run out of cash, you stop spending. If we ran a little short on money we had to make due. One learning experience was “Mother’s Pink Surprise” – which was certainly a surprise and a lesson that raspberry yogurt does not really substitute well for milk in a pancake. Yuck!
Another advantage was a good work ethic. Mom was able to work two GTA positions in addition to a normal grad student work load. I don’t know how she did it. Mom was working late into the night and was working when we got up in the mornings. Although the degree was not quite as useful as it was intended, Mom’s hard work eventually paid off. After a couple of different jobs, she taught herself how to program computers.
Although there are others that have had harder lives, from this experience I learned that even significant problems can be overcome, even for those who can’t just go back to their middle class lives when their experiment is over. I know it would not be easy but I would eventually recover from most problems. I know that until she had to, Mom would not have thought that she could be able to overcome those problems. If there is anyone out there who is having serious problems, you can too.

Joel

 

The only thing ridiculous about it is this conversation. It is so predictable that people would immediately start dismissing it, not out of experience or even reading what he wrote, but simply because it might contradict the politically correct theory of “da poh nigga” they hold dear to their hearts. I despise closet racists and those that hold other people down by giving them excuses to fail.

But before you blast back at me in some ill-read ignorant fashion, I am black, female, was raped and pregnant at 16 by my mother’s boyfriend, no father and an abusive drunk for a mother, and kicked out and homeless with a child at 17, and living in a shelter. Obviously I had no education either. Now at 33, I have a college degree (and loans to go with it), a nice income, a house, a paid for new car, an IRA, a timeshare, I even pay for my mother’s apartment (even though I have nothing else to do with her), and no reason to not have a good life ahead of me. Damn right I am proud of myself. I am not rich, probably never will be, and I used the system properly - - but I used it, not abused it, got my own self off it, and nobody gave me the life I have earned. And I have quite a number of friends that have done something similar.

So please don't tell me I'm too stupid, too black, too female, or too ignorant to do something I've already done. And I don't need any white or black superheroes coming into coddle my child and telling her she has an excuse built into her gender or race. I want her to follow in my steps, not believe your condescending and patronizing attitudes.

It is about choices. I made mine to NOT live with the crap anymore and to do something about it. I chose to keep my pants on, not put a needle in my arm, not drink, and I chose to get up in the morning, take charge, not whine about it, or buy into your sorry excuses why my life couldn’t be anything but a disaster. Guess what people – when you make bad choices, you get bad results. It’s the rule. It’s life. When you make good choices, it doesn’t always work so you KEEP making them till it does. That’s life too.

The author spent 10 months proving something COULD happen (not guaranteed) and people here have spent all of 10 seconds to question his veracity and speculating why this wouldn't work for anyone else. “Oh, it's because he's male, white, young, isn't a drug addict, doesn't have a disease, and doesn't have to stop working to take care of a sick relative.” Don’t you tell me I can’t do something some white man can do.

98% of the people in this world, not just poor people would be in serious financial trouble if they had to quit work to take care of a sick relative. Maybe you are one of those rich do-good exceptions, but that’s not where most people live. Stick a needle in your arm – you lose! Nobody owes you sh*t.

They’d also be in trouble if they got cancer, were in the eye of a hurricane, or fell down the stairs and broke their back. But that is NOT why most people are poor and don’t get out. If you think otherwise, put down your sociology textbook and get out in the world. You can always come up with exceptions, but most people are poor because they were born there – but then because they still make bad choices, don’t get off their ass, and buy into your excuses that they cannot do it. Shut up and show people how to do it instead of giving them a pass and an acceptance of inevitable failure.

But let’s for a second say you know something of which you talk. I guess that would still not include all the poor young and able-bodied males, now would it? Got some excuses for them? I tell them if I can do it, so can they - to get their ass out of bed, go get a job, and spend your evenings studying in school instead of making babies, getting hight, and hanging out with losers. Do NOT tell me it’s not that simple. I know it is not simple – it is hard work, and you wouldn’t know how simple it is not. But it is VERY possible.

So go wipe your sorry little noses and go back to your corner of ignorance where you can believe you have superior knowledge of things you know nothing about, and pat yourself on the back for being a friend to poor black women. I will send you a bag of confetti for your parade. It smells like swamp gas to me, but some people really find your brand of patronizing BS quite refreshing. There are a lot of folks that can use your brand of falderal to justify why they have never accomplished a thing besides spawning another generation to take their place.

Have a nice day,
Signed - A black indignant proud and take no excuses single mother who got tired of the crap and did something about it -

 

A lot of these posts talk about how privileged Alan was that he was white, college-educated, and young. But take a look at any of the various websites that give statistics of the U.S. homeless population and guess who the majority are - white males between 25 and 40.

Further, how does speaking English well help you move couches? Basically no education needed for that job.

It's also strange that everyone comments that his experiment was not a success because he had to leave early to attend to his sick mother. He had already accomplished beyond his goal by saving an extra $2500. Couple this with the fact that the vast majority of homeless people are single, no family to care for.

I can't wait until my copy arrives. It will be refreshing after reading Ehrehreich's pretentious socialist rant.

 

A lot of these posts talk about how privileged Alan was that he was white, college-educated, and young. But take a look at any of the various websites that give statistics of the U.S. homeless population and guess who the majority are - white males between 25 and 40.

Further, how does speaking English well help you move couches? Basically no education needed for that job.

It's also strange that everyone comments that his experiment was not a success because he had to leave early to attend to his sick mother. He had already accomplished beyond his goal by saving an extra $2500. Couple this with the fact that the vast majority of homeless people are single, no family to care for.

I can't wait until my copy arrives. It will be refreshing after reading Ehrehreich's pretentious socialist rant.

 

It's also strange that everyone comments that his experiment was not a success because he had to leave early to attend to his sick mother. He had already accomplished beyond his goal by saving an extra $2500.

This is called "early stopping bias" and anyone knowledgeable about statistics would know if does invalidate what he did. Apparently the kid didn't get much out of that college education.

 

Reality staring at you in your face is that millions of hard working people are one pay check away from mortgage default, one mishap away from financial ruin, and one misfortune away from a life time of pain and misery. It can be physical or mental illness, accident, divorce, or any unanticipated events which generally incurs excessive stress or financial hardship into a persons life. His little game that he plays for 10 months and professes that he is holier then thou and that if he can do it anyone can is an absolute insult to million or hard working people on the fringes of dire poverty.

Have a nice day,
Signed - A black indignant proud and take no excuses single mother who got tired of the crap and did something about it -

What this commenter achieved is commendable. Kudos to you for taking charge of your life and doing well. But I don't think you are immune to the same potential mishaps mentioned above. It only takes one car accident to potentially incur debilitating injury and years of physical recovery and financial hardship. Also your comment that "If I can do it anyone can", comes across as if you disdain anyone who is beneath your standard. I wonder it other people who are slightly above or significantly above your standard consider you with the same worthless disdain because you could not achieve their level of achievements. Reality is that each person has a unique and different level of circumstances and talents. Compassion might fit well here.

 

See my screed on this at http://rocket-report.blogspot.com/2008/02/can-you-build-life-from-25.html - I won't recreate it here, but my thesis is that the conceit that Adam Shepard went into his experiment with choice homelessness with $25, the shirt on his back, and *nothing else* reflects a degree of willful blindness to his unacknowledged advantages that is shockingly naive.

Thanks for your post reacting to this as well.

 

First of all, Amen to Anonymous who posted at 6:16 pm! She pretty much summed it up for me in many ways. I do believe that many people in this country have forgotten what it means to "pull up your boot straps" and get to work. Too many people are victims with their hand out repeating excuses they heard off Dr. Phil for why they can't do something.

I don't understand why so many are critisizing this guy because he acheived what he set out to do. We should be congratulating him and hoping that he inspires some others to do the same. And as for all the posts about what 'could' happen like an illness or car accident or whatever, well that's just silly because if you lived your life worried over what 'could' happen to derail your goals then nobody would get anywhere. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to prepare, just the opposite, but you have to keep on truckin' in the meantime if you are going to get anywhere. Sh*t happens sometimes and you get up and start going again. It's called Life.

 

It would be interesting if different people set out to do the same thing. It would be very interesting to see how race or gender affects the experiment's outcome.

 

Oh my goodness - he is adorable! And terribly naive. Haven't read his book, but the fact that he had the choice to just drop out of his little Petit Trianon when life handed him something difficult speaks volumes about the difference btwn him and actual poor people. Actual poor people have to "deal" when life turns unlucky.