i don't want to hear shit that the top 1% has to say about poor people

i'm TIRED of hearing upper and upper middle class people tell working class that if they just work hard enough, one day they too will be part of the socioeconomic elite.

i'm even more tired of hearing upper and upper middle class people justify this by saying that the 'working class' people either aren't working (and "riding the welfare system") or, if they are working, they're not working hard enough:

PLEASE watch this short video explaining wealth distribution (or, rather, the lack thereof) in america.

Yesterday I had a socioeconomic elite tell me this and then say (completely unaware of my life story) that, as a Dartmouth student, I should understand this better than anybody. This person then proceeded to insinuate that because I am here, I am better than the folks back home in Arkansas who "choose to be oppressed".

what this person and many others in their position do not understand/cannot see/do not know is...

This was a typical week in my life before I got to Dartmouth. 

I worked two retail jobs in two different cities. They were literally days that I opened at one job and then as soon as I got off, I had to drive across town and close at the other. I frequently worked 11+ hour days.

This was a typical pay for TWO weeks of work.

(and even now at Dartmouth, I'm tutoring 6 of my peers (up to 3 hr/week each) for money)

I WAS LITERALLY WORKING ~45 HOURS/WEEK AND STILL MAKING LESS THAN $500 A PAY PERIOD.

and its not because i was doing mediocre work. there is this erroneous notion that retail employees just sit around all day and ring people up.
FALSE. we have sells goals to make and actively have to make people think that they want/need the merchandise.
I WAS LITERALLY THE LOWEST RANKED, LOWEST PAID EMPLOYEE IN THE COMPANY (sales associate), yet I had the highest sales in my entire store the entire 2 years that I worked for the company.

guess what i got for that?
not shit.
not motherfucking shit.
except for the 10 CENT PAY RAISE  that any employee gets for every 6 months that they work for the company. (I was hired in at minimum wage, $7.25/hour at the end of my sophomore year of high school. When I left for school in September, I was making $7.60/hour.)

unless you have felt the absolutely sickening feeling when you realize that someone thinks that you're worth $7.25, less than the cost of a HEADBAND at Claire's,

UNTIL YOU HAVE BEEN MADE TO GET PEOPLE TO COME INTO THE STORE THAT YOU ARE WORKING IN AND CASUALLY SPEND OVER $100 ON FAKE NAILS FOR TODDLERS, WHILE KNOWING IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND THAT THAT'S LITERALLY HALF OF THE MONEY THAT YOU MAKE IN A WEEK, 

STFU.

"upper class" people, the next time that you want to try and speak on behalf of the "lower class", DON'T.