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Old 07-31-2013, 06:36 AM
 
Location: SoCal
1,527 posts, read 4,209,858 times
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You cannot afford anything you you like, even though you work harder than most and deserve more!

Being poor is like a vicious cycle, it's extremley hard to get out of, despite what people say.
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Old 07-31-2013, 07:33 AM
 
1,924 posts, read 2,363,367 times
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You're right, but wait till The Bootstrappers get here...
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Old 07-31-2013, 08:02 AM
 
17,384 posts, read 11,893,765 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oaktonite View Post
You're right, but wait till The Bootstrappers get here...
Got here a little late. Had to push my way in past the Communists.
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Old 07-31-2013, 08:15 AM
 
28,896 posts, read 53,951,888 times
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Originally Posted by oaktonite View Post
You're right, but wait till The Bootstrappers get here...
And here I am. With that comment, I'm sure that it has never occurred to you that we Bootstrappers were where the OP was in life. But we actually did something about it.

It's one thing to complain about being poor when you're 18 or 22. Everybody is strapped for cash then. But your position in life when you're 40 is the sum of all the decisions you've made in life, both the good and the boneheaded. So if you're still complaining about being poor when you're 45, then you are the number one reason for being poor. No two ways about it.

Yeah, yeah. I get it. Your boss is a meanie. The economy sucks. There aren't any jobs in your town. You don't have the skills or education to get a better job. I've heard it all before. Yet, almost without fail, the same people I've heard make those complaints have zero work ethic, whine about their job, practically sprint out the door at 5:00 and then head home to watch TV or hang out down at the bar rather than invest in a class at night or on the weekend. I guess they would rather complain about their lot in life than do something about it.

Guess what? You aren't entitled to make large amounts of money. And in my entire life, I've never met anyone with a job who DIDN'T think he or she worked harder than most. The people who say, "Yeah, boy I am a total slacker and love that I get away with it" simply don't exist.

Heck, when I had my business, I hired someone who had worked thirty years at the Social Security Administration. You would have thought, to hear her tell it, that it was a freaking Viking longship over there in the entrails of bureaucracy. But when she got to the private sector, she was in for a rude shock. She never realized how cushy a government job really was and how little accountability she really had. And I didn't even run the kind of place where a lot of overtime was necessary. We just expected you to do your job well and do it on time and on budget.

I started out of school earning below the poverty line and no marketable skills outside of being able to write a coherent sentence. What's more, the economy at the time made the current situation look a little like a cakewalk, with my city having unemployment around 12%. So I worked two menial jobs and started networking and invested my time in learning new skills. There was literally nothing I wouldn't be willing to learn in order to improve my value.

So, surprise, I was able to handle more important assignments. And I did those assignments efficiently. Further, when a job didn't pay me enough for what I was doing, I leveraged those contacts I had made to find a better paying job. What's more, I saved every freaking dime I possibly could. I drove cars until the wheels fell off and didn't blow a lot of money on entertainment.

I mean, hell, if the OP were halfway diligent about matters, he would find out that the government, Federal and state, have job training programs galore. Google is his friend.

That's bootstrapping my friend, otherwise known as work and making prudent financial decisions. If you want to make money, it's what you have to do. There's really no way out of it.

Last edited by cpg35223; 07-31-2013 at 08:28 AM..
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Old 07-31-2013, 08:44 AM
 
Location: SoCal
1,527 posts, read 4,209,858 times
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Hahaa anyone who thinks a worthless POS paper/certificate will make them rich is obviously well beyond their head.

Lets face it, the rich profit from the poor being poor.

And that's the way it is. Poor and poverty line grade of people outnumber the 'well off' and really I think it's time to blame the system. Not the individuals.
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Old 07-31-2013, 08:57 AM
 
1,924 posts, read 2,363,367 times
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Originally Posted by ringwise View Post
Got here a little late. Had to push my way in past the Communists.
Communists??? I suspect you've gotten everywhere a little late.
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Old 07-31-2013, 09:03 AM
 
1,924 posts, read 2,363,367 times
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Originally Posted by cpg35223 View Post
And here I am. With that comment, I'm sure that it has never occurred to you that we Bootstrappers were where the OP was in life. But we actually did something about it.
Bring on the breast-beating and boastful biographies! It's quite a fine model American you make, isn't it. If only we had more people like you. And more dime-store children's fiction by Horatio Alger.
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Old 07-31-2013, 09:18 AM
 
28,896 posts, read 53,951,888 times
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Originally Posted by oaktonite View Post
Bring on the breast-beating and boastful biographies! It's quite a fine model American you make, isn't it. If only we had more people like you. And more dime-store children's fiction by Horatio Alger.
That's nice. But it doesn't make it any less true. That's the problem with people like you. You sit around your entire life wanting other people to help you, then are bitter about it when the world doesn't recognize your brilliance. How does it feel to be a cliché?
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Old 07-31-2013, 09:20 AM
 
1,474 posts, read 3,558,469 times
Reputation: 2085
Times have changed making it harder, far more difficult, for a person to start up a business where they perhaps can make decent money without a degree (or with one in too many cases) in engineering or other "demand" field. Part of the problem is government regulation and legal entanglements. Some of it is due to rigorous licensing requirements or self protection rules by people already in a trade. In my area, for many years we had a couple of brothers whose business involved pumping septic tanks, replacing drain fields etc. Not a crowded field as you might imagine but they were incredibly reliable, honest (not ripping off widows and elderly). However, they were both almost illiterate with their wives handling the business end. Along came the government and came up with a test you had to pass in order to be in the business. Basically the exam involved "digging in the dirt". Neither could pass because they could not read well enough to prepare never mind to read the exam itself. The government was picking winners and losers and it is more acute today. They finally had to rearrange their business structure to take on a "partner" who could pass the exam and they could operate under that license. Yes, yes, there are perils with digging: natural gas lines, other utilities, etc. But these men could have easily been put out of business. I tend to believe that pulling oneself up by their own shoe strings is largely a thing of the past.
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Old 07-31-2013, 09:21 AM
 
28,896 posts, read 53,951,888 times
Reputation: 46662
Quote:
Originally Posted by yowps3 View Post
Hahaa anyone who thinks a worthless POS paper/certificate will make them rich is obviously well beyond their head.

Lets face it, the rich profit from the poor being poor.

And that's the way it is. Poor and poverty line grade of people outnumber the 'well off' and really I think it's time to blame the system. Not the individuals.
Gosh. And you can't understand why you're barely scraping by.
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