A generation with its hand out...

[belfastboy]

^^^^^
Yeah, while maintaining mindfulness of forbidden territory in these parts, I can offer that my experience with the more recent arrivals to this fair land has left me with admiration and respect for the bulk of them, more so, on balance, than for my fellow countrymen whose ancestors settled here several generations ago.

It’s no small thing to leave behind all one has known to start over in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar customs where one must became at least minimally conversant in an unfamiliar language and deal with characters who would rather that person not be there at all.

We denizens of the so-called “Western world” (throw in Japan and South Korea and Australia) shouldn’t lose sight of all we have. We ought not blind ourselves to the sins of our ancestors, either, but nor should we disregard why immigration flows our direction and not toward the less free and less affluent countries.

I would guess the further away one gets from immigrant ancestors the less impact it has. My grandparents immigrated from Ulster, my wife's from Ukraine/Poland at the turn of the 20thC. Both sides dirt poor on arrival but both our parents worked their way into a middle class life style....... eventually.

But it wasn't easy, my father's first job was working the killing floor of an abatoir, my wife's kin were farmers. My nieces and nephews are now part of the 1% income wise so I would imagine their children, as wonderful as they are, would roll their eyes if we bothered to tell the tale of their ancestry.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
I’d imagine you’ve heard that line about one generation to make the fortune, a second one to maintain it, and a third to squander it.

I dunno how much truth there might be in that, seeing how I know but a few people who ever touched anything resembling a fortune, so hardly a sizable sample. But an uncle who checked out going on two years ago knew his only child, an adopted daughter, well enough to put her chunk of his considerable estate in the hands of a conservator until she reaches age 65. She doesn’t yet appreciate how he was planning for her retirement better than she ever would.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

But an uncle who checked out going on two years ago knew his only child, an adopted daughter, well enough to put her chunk of his considerable estate in the hands of a conservator until she reaches age 65. She doesn’t yet appreciate how he was planning for her retirement better than she ever would.

Ditto. I resemble that planning.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
You’re in plentiful if not entirely good company.