Does common sense blame the victim?

It's no doubt cruel and racist

An acquaintance posted this on his Facebook:

I commented (I try to stay out of it but sometimes my annoyance wins) that these are just plain taking responsibility for oneself.

He put the laughing emoji next to my comment and wrote:

It can both but the pay scale rarely advances but mostly everything mentioned on this list has ridiculously so I’m not typically down for blaming those who have less over those who have in ridiculous abundance! It’s called capitalism for a reason.

The comment is a little garbled but people write FB comments on their phones so no criticism of that.

I fail to see how pointing out obvious ways that people can save money is blaming those who have less over those who have… anything. Is it somehow a human right to order takeout, eat out, have a short commute to work or get out of debt without cutting spending?

And I don’t quite get how these make you poor more quietly. Seems more likely that doing these things would get you out of poverty.

Perhaps because I don’t feel particularly sorry for myself, I have trouble feeling sorry for people who exercise incredibly bad judgement and then feel like government should get them out of the situation. I’ve made some poor decisions in my life time, many of them tiny everyday decisions that add up rather than big one-time decisions (though attempting to get an unfunded PhD program was the A#1 stupidest choice ever.)

I understand that a tremendous amount of social capital and help from friends is what has saved me from seriously bad situations more than once. But what really has turned the tide is simple, old fashioned hard work. It is, in fact, hard to work very long days, have an arduous commute, find any time to exercise, and avoid eating tons of Swedish Fish,

but I don’t blame the government or the mythical rich for these problems. They are my problems, and no one else is going to solve them. In fact, I bet Mamdani’s next promise will be free gummy candies for all! So the socialists would be more likely to contribute to my profligacy than to assist me in living better.

People want stuff for free. A life of ease is now in fashion. Hard work is no longer culturally supported, at least not in West Philadelphia, home of the “poor” who buy a $5 coffee every morning.

I’m heading back to the place where hard work is expected, whining is not accepted, and people get on with it.