A gilded cage is still a cage. I’d rather work and pay rent and live in a modest apartment than be imprisoned in a luxury hotel that I’m not allowed to leave. Prisoners in Halden prison don’t get to set their own schedule, don’t get to quit being a prisoner and move across the country, don’t get to code with whom they live and associate.
Even with a minimum wage job you can save up enough money for a plane ticket to anywhere in the world and just leave. Or even just a bus ticket across the country to live somewhere else.
Or how about taking your girlfriend/boyfriend out on a date to a nice restaurant? Or rent a cabin in the woods for a weekend and just relax? Or go out to the bar for a few beers with a friend? Or volunteer to spend time with some elderly folks at a nursing home!
Being in prison sucks, no matter how much they dress it up. The vast majority of things you might do are closed off to you just because you can’t leave. Every single one of those prisoners knows they’re being punished. Every single one of them counts the days until their release.
I don’t because I make well above minimum wage but you’re making uprooting your life and moving sound easier than it. It costs thousands of dollars to move to a new city, even more if you don’t have friends or family to stay with until you get established. Good luck setting that much aside when you’re barely surviving.
I’m not saying it’s easy! I’m saying it’s possible.
Having family and family obligations is still your choice. Many people walk away from all that because it’s unbearable to them. A prisoner doesn’t have that option: they’re stuck with whoever their cellmates are, no matter what.
I honestly don’t get all these people downvoting the general sentiment that a prisoner is, in fact, imprisoned. A free person on the other hand, is not.
No one here is denying that being poor or homeless makes it extremely hard to really do anything, that’s not the point. The point is that no matter how poor or homeless a person is, they still retain the freedom of choice regarding what to do when they wake up the next morning.
Is that the poverty only experienced by a true Scotsman?
I’ve never had to live on the street, if that’s what you’re asking. I was raised by a single father. We had as many as 4 roommates at various times, including alcoholics and drug addicts. I’ve had to call the police on some of them. I’ve had to stay at my grandparents’ while my dad drove across the country as a salesman just to pay the bills.
I dropped out of high school at age 16 and only managed to go back and finish in my 30s. I got into university and graduated with a degree, thanks to generous government loans and grants. Now I got my first job post-graduation working in a mail room at age 41.
Was my life easy? No. But I wasn’t living in a slum in central Africa drinking contaminated water and suffering from Guinea worm disease. I think anyone in North America who grew up in a working class home is a long, long way from that kind of poverty.
A gilded cage is still a cage. I’d rather work and pay rent and live in a modest apartment than be imprisoned in a luxury hotel that I’m not allowed to leave. Prisoners in Halden prison don’t get to set their own schedule, don’t get to quit being a prisoner and move across the country, don’t get to code with whom they live and associate.
Even with a minimum wage job you can save up enough money for a plane ticket to anywhere in the world and just leave. Or even just a bus ticket across the country to live somewhere else.
Or how about taking your girlfriend/boyfriend out on a date to a nice restaurant? Or rent a cabin in the woods for a weekend and just relax? Or go out to the bar for a few beers with a friend? Or volunteer to spend time with some elderly folks at a nursing home!
Being in prison sucks, no matter how much they dress it up. The vast majority of things you might do are closed off to you just because you can’t leave. Every single one of those prisoners knows they’re being punished. Every single one of them counts the days until their release.
If you make minimum wage in the city I live in you either live with your parents, have multiple roomates, or live on the street.
Right, but you don’t have to live in that city. You have the choice to move somewhere else! Prisoners don’t have that choice.
Moving is expensive. If you barely scrape by, this id not an option for the vast majority of these people.
I don’t because I make well above minimum wage but you’re making uprooting your life and moving sound easier than it. It costs thousands of dollars to move to a new city, even more if you don’t have friends or family to stay with until you get established. Good luck setting that much aside when you’re barely surviving.
I’m not saying it’s easy! I’m saying it’s possible.
Having family and family obligations is still your choice. Many people walk away from all that because it’s unbearable to them. A prisoner doesn’t have that option: they’re stuck with whoever their cellmates are, no matter what.
I honestly don’t get all these people downvoting the general sentiment that a prisoner is, in fact, imprisoned. A free person on the other hand, is not.
No one here is denying that being poor or homeless makes it extremely hard to really do anything, that’s not the point. The point is that no matter how poor or homeless a person is, they still retain the freedom of choice regarding what to do when they wake up the next morning.
you sound like you have never lived in true poverty
Is that the poverty only experienced by a true Scotsman?
I’ve never had to live on the street, if that’s what you’re asking. I was raised by a single father. We had as many as 4 roommates at various times, including alcoholics and drug addicts. I’ve had to call the police on some of them. I’ve had to stay at my grandparents’ while my dad drove across the country as a salesman just to pay the bills.
I dropped out of high school at age 16 and only managed to go back and finish in my 30s. I got into university and graduated with a degree, thanks to generous government loans and grants. Now I got my first job post-graduation working in a mail room at age 41.
Was my life easy? No. But I wasn’t living in a slum in central Africa drinking contaminated water and suffering from Guinea worm disease. I think anyone in North America who grew up in a working class home is a long, long way from that kind of poverty.