Reply #8: Yes, I used to think that poor people were poor because they were lazy [View All]

[Redleg]

or stupid (they make the wrong choices). Now I am ashamed of believing those things and realize 1) It is lazy to stereotype people that way, 2) the "system" helps keep the poor poor and the rich rich.

My biggest intellectual awakening and the beginning of my leftward ideological shift occurred in the last quarter of my undergraduate program when I took a course in polisci called "the elements of communism." Reading Marx, Lenin, and other writers gave me a new perspective to look at the world.

Believe it or not, going to grad school a few years later to study management and economics opened my eyes even more. I now see the U.S. form of capitalism to be deeply flawed and unfair to working people and that the Rethuglicans are going to undo the protections that we have built into the system, including the National Labor Relations Act, Social Security, and ahost federal regulations on business and employment. God help us if they succeed.