Thursday, September 06, 2012

Barack and Michelle—middle class kids going to Ivy League schools on your dime

Everyone agrees--Michelle Obama gave a flawless presentation. I've only seen a few clips, but I'd judge her a better speaker than her husband, with a rich, authentic voice. That said, some of it sounded a bit "hard luck" for such a middle class girl.

I had a nice life growing up in a small, midwestern town. My father owned a small business--2 trucks, one employee and a gas station, as I recall. What we called middle class in the 1950s, they call poverty today. No TV, no AC, one phone, one car, no health insurance, clothes made at home, and a garden for fresh produce. One thing I do know is Michelle and Barack Obama's parents/grandparents were far wealthier than mine, and I didn't finish my degrees at the University of Illinois (about a fourth the cost of Harvard) owing any money. What I couldn't earn in summers or after school, my parents paid. I know these "I came up from nothing and struggled and look what I've accomplished" memes are great for politics, but they really belong with those "I built that" stories. And neither one of them did that.


  • Fellow blogger LadyBug Crossing says:

    We were middle class, too. Dad worked as an engineer for a large company. Mom was a nurse - she worked weekends. We traveled the world with him. We lived in the same house (except when we were overseas and they rented it out) my whole life....

    We made do. We shopped the sale racks. Mom made our dress clothes. We kids didn't get cars when we turned 16. I went to public school. I went to college and graduated without debt thanks to Mom's nursing job providing the extra. I worked every minute I was home from school. I lived at home until I got married. My graduate degree was earned while i was working. It wasn't easy, but I did it! We scrimped and saved for our house. Our cars are 10 and 11 years old. We have no debt except the mortgage. If we can't pay for it, we don't buy it. imagine that? Will I apologize for having a great childhood? No. Will I apologize because I have a nice life? No. Will I apologize for giving my children a similar life? No. They know the value of a dollar, the value of their education, and that family is where it's at. :-)

P.S.
I won't show you photos of Michelle's wedding gown because there are probably copyright issues, but you can google. Gorgeous and she looked fabulous. Definitely the 1% type dress and the men wore tuxes, whether or not she had to skip a few school loan payments to pay for it.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My upbringing was on a farm, my parents were farmers, plenty of brainpower, no opportunity to go to college. egarding the Obamas, they ended up with thousands of dollars of college debt. While we had none, you and I, they had plenty of debt, and that creates empathy. Not sure why you say you were poor, neither you nor I were growing up, it was the way it was in those days. Stop slinging stuff at the Obamas, they had no control over the way they were raised any more than we did.

Norma said...

You didn't read what I wrote. I din't say we were poor--we were middle class, as were the Obamas. By today's standards, our life style would be "poverty" because today even the poor have far more material goods than the middle class had in the 1950s. I disagree about them not having choices, even as teens. They certainly have choices now not to invent a past they didn't live.

Telling the truth is not "slinging" stuff. Ignoring truth is just buying into their plea to ignore the mess they've made the last 4 years.

Anonymous said...

they both watched their parents go off to work. One parent was hanicapped and struggle daily the other parent a single mother helped by her parents that both worked daily and one hit the" glass" early for women and kept on working.I doubt you were as poor as you are remembering in your advancing old age. remember the old joke "I walked to school every day and it was uphill both ways" It always get better or in this case poorer with each telling. We don't lie we just misremember

Norma said...

Doesn't anyone READ???? I said we were middle class, but by today's standards that is poor. Michelle's parents were also middle class and her father wasn't so handicapped he didn't work, he had a very good salary. The point is, it isn't me exaggerating, it's her. And Obama's grandmother was a bank vice president, he wasn't with his mother when she died, and she had full coverage insurance. But the truth just doesn't play out well at conventions when you're trying to rally your flagging troops who are dropping out.

Anonymous said...

Murray sez:
I was there when Norma was growing up! She said it like it was. She was not considered poor BUT... as she points out, by today's standards, she would have been considered poor. Oh, and by the way, I did walk uphill both ways to school and in the rain and snowstorms too! LOL

Anonymous said...

"Poverty" and "middle class" are not about the things you own, it's about one's income. "No TV, no AC, one phone, one car, no health insurance, clothes made at home, and a garden for fresh produce" is not poverty; that's just a different spending pattern. In fact everyone in America (of any class) can afford more material goods than in the 1950s, because globalization has made consumer good much cheaper.

Also I don't know what's going on with the title. It wasn't addressed in the post but the Obamas appeared to have attended private schools and taken out, and paid off, large student loans to do so. Not sure how that's going to school "on your dime." In fact attended University of Illinois much more an example of going to school "on your dime," because it's a state school, and funded by Illinois taxpayers.