I'm so irritated, I don't even know what to title this blog post

Dear whoever wrote the paragraph below,

Well, hurrah for you. You obviously know the value of hard work and motivation; those are excellent traits to have, and they have worked well for you. But your view is short-sighted and not compassionate. It is simple truth that hard work and motivation are not always enough. Lots of people make better than "decent grades" in high school, but still don't get scholarships. Sometimes scholarships are just given for football skills. And perhaps your degree is in something that is very marketable, and you'll have no problem getting a job upon graduation. If that's the case, how lucky you are that your talents and training are in something marketable. You should have compassion towards those whose talents are not in a field with an easy job market. (For example, academics trying to get professorial positions: about 50 of the jobs for which my husband applied last year also had 150-300 other job applicants).

Consider the man who has 6 children while he had a great job. Then he lost his job due to company failure, cannot find another job, spends 60 hours a week working manual labor, and still can't feed his family. Are you saying he's at fault for making poor choices?

We don't have iphones, netflix, or even tv channels. We eat cheaply, my kids share a room, we keep the a/c off when it's not miserably stuffy, but we still are stretched. We almost never buy clothes that are not on sale. We too, "work our asses off" as you say, but we're not going to be able to make it past next May if things stay the same. Are you saying this is our fault because of our "own bad decisions?"

You say you're in college; I'm assuming you don't have a family yet. Since you are still in college, you haven't yet experienced real life. Try having a spouse and children to support, experience the failed market economy, and go through losing a job before you sound so judgmental against people who struggle to make it month to month.

“I am a college senior, about to graduate completely debt free. I pay for all of my living expenses by working 30+ hrs a week making barely above minimum wage. I chose a moderately priced, in – state public university & started saving $ for school at age 17. I got decent grades in high school & received 2 scholarships which cover 90% of my tuition. I currently have 3.8 GPA. I live comfortably in a cheap apt., knowing I can’t have everything I want. I don’t eat out every day, or even once a month. I have no credit card, new car, iPad or smart phone-and I’m perfectly OK with that. If I did have debt, I would not blame Wall St. or the government for my own bad decisions. I live below my means to continue saving for the future. I expect nothing to be handed to me, and I will continue to work my @$$ off for everything I have. That’s how it’s supposed to work. I am NOT the 99% and whether or not you are is YOUR decision.”

http://www.latronbrown.com/2011/10/16/i-am-the-99/