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Of course it is. There is only a certain amount to go around.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
Quote:
If you believe that everybody can become a billionaire, if they work at it, you are deluding yourself.
I don’t believe any such thing. Much of the population struggles with simply managing their simple lives. They don’t have the capacity to become a billionaire.
I think everyone should be able to afford to live in Beverly Hills and drive a Porsche.
Basically the mentality of Mayor of L.A . I guess it wins him votes from the base though ..
“Ending the housing affordability crisis is essential to securing Los Angeles as a place where every Angeleno — no matter their income — has an opportunity to build a life in our community. Everyone in L.A. deserves a place to come home to, and the Affordable Housing Linkage Fee is a critical investment in making that future possible for all of our families.” — Mayor Eric Garcetti”
I know you didn't get the chance to study economics in college, but as this is the economics forum, I thought I'd point you to some free online economics classes. I think you might find them interesting.
I would love to hear how some of the rich earn it without help from their parents in today generation.
OK - except most of the "rich" aren't Millennials - nor were they rich when they were the age of Millennials. The "rich" tend to be older - because, well, you know, experience and all that. Lots of failures often before their successes. And many of them started with minimum wage jobs.
I know a guy whose dad was killed when the guy was very young (in a work related accident). This was 55 or so years ago, and the surviving spouse got a whopping $10,000 in life insurance - nothing from the company because - well, back in the day they didn't have good safety laws or protections for workers. So...this single mom with two little boys had to go back to school and work at the same time. Which she did. The boys grew up with television as a baby sitter till their mom finally graduated with a degree in teaching. As you know, teachers don't get paid much, and they didn't then either, but they made more than secretaries. (She basically had three options - teacher, secretary, or nurse).
So these boys grew up poor, but they grew up with a work ethic. By the age of about 10 they each had paper routes. Then they lied about their age repeatedly till one of them managed to get a job in the oilfield at age 16 (during the summers) when he was supposed to be 18. No one ever checked anything back then.
He was such a hard worker that he got the same job on an oil rig every summer. During the school year he worked anywhere and everywhere he could - from cutting firewood to moving cars at auction, to collections (he was one of the guys who showed up at the house to move the furniture that people weren't paying for). His mom couldn't afford to pay for his college so he worked during the summers, saved up the money and paid for two years of college and an associate's degree and then he went into oil and gas - on the front end, the low paying end, the dirty, dangerous, explosive - ridden, sweaty end of it. Oil rigs out in the Gulf, dirty dusty locations in the Texas panhandle, you name it, that's where he went. This was before workers' hours were very regulated so it was very common for him to work 100 hours a week, sleep in his truck, that sort of thing.
He did every job no one else wanted to do. A bad, dirty job? He'd volunteer. Mud up to your thighs? He'd volunteer. Fingers frozen under a truck? He'd volunteer. Why? Because he was building his career and that's what you do to build a career when you don't have any rich relative connections, no bachelor's degree in engineering, and you're just from a podunk town in the middle of nowhere.
Long story short, he now makes more than most doctors make. I don't know if that's "rich enough" for you but it's a LOT richer than his mom ever dreamed of, or really anyone in his family for that matter.
My dad's parents did the unheard of when he was a kid in the 1940s - they got a divorce. So he was raised by a single mom who worked at the five and dime - on her feet, all day, every day, till she retired at about age 55.
My dad was raised in a two bedroom clapboard house. Wait, did I say clapboard? I mean ASBESTOS SIDING because that's what it was made with - and he and his mom both got cancer - his mom got mesothelioma in fact and never smoked a day in her life.
He was raised in a tiny town in Arkansas.
My dad was smart and had a great personality. He made good grades. He worked in the sawmill, or the dairy, or the cotton gin, every summer and picked up odd jobs from about the age of 8 onward. He got a partial scholarship and his mom scraped together the rest for him to go to a community college. He worked nearly full time and was also in the national guard. He worked in a dog food factory while he was in college.
He graduated and figured the best bet for him was the military - and since the draft was going on, and he was bound to get drafted and go to Vietnam, he just decided to enlist and then apply for Officer Candidate School in the hopes that he could SOMEHOW control something about his military career.
He ended up flying missions over Vietnam for seven years.
But like I said, my dad was smart, and he had a great personality - and a great work ethic. As soon as the Vietnam war was over, he got the hell outta Dodge and began working for a Burger King franchise - in HR but he really got the job because the owner wanted someone on staff who could fly his little private plane around to the various Burger King locations. So my dad did that for many years, progressing up the corporate ladder to HR Director of the entire franchise.
When I was 18 - about to go to college, which I assumed my solidly middle class parents would pay for - my dad decided to start his own business. So I worked about 30 hours a week and paid for all my books and fees, and my mom and dad paid my tuition - at community college because there was no way any of us could afford for me to go live in a dorm or apartment anywhere. (In fact, I did end up moving into an apartment with several roommates and we were all poor as church mice).
My dad's business became successful over time - I mean, it took time - like about 8 years of time. But eventually he did end up grossing about $300k a year. Notice I didn't say NETTING - I said GROSSING. His net was less but it was actually a very comfortable, what I would call upper middle class lifestyle (this was in the 1980s and 1990s).
So - I've given you two examples of people who had far from wealthy upbringings, no family connections, no Ivy League degrees, and yet - they made it. They made it into the 5 percent or so. Definitely the upper 10 percent income wise. They did this basically by making good decisions, never ever giving up, never settling, never feeling like a victim of anything.
Again, and? You're saying parents have no right to spoil their children? What concern is it of yours if they never learn to mow the grass or change a tire? What concern is it of yours if their hobby is to crash Ferraris in between yacht parties and private jet trips?
Every bit of it my concern if they keep throwing in the working mans face. Here we are WORKING to put food on the table and these chumps get the spoils. We all ask our self the question, "Where Did I go wrong" and simple answer is, wasnt born with a silver spoon nor had the connections to get you ahead of the rest of the world.
Every bit of it my concern if they keep throwing in the working mans face. Here we are WORKING to put food on the table and these chumps get the spoils. We all ask our self the question, "Where Did I go wrong" and simple answer is, wasnt born with a silver spoon nor had the connections to get you ahead of the rest of the world.
Like the two examples I just gave. There are lots more where that came from.
Heck, I'll give you another one - even younger. This particular African American young woman is in her thirties. She was born to a single AA mom with a serious crack habit. She grew up in the projects, as her mom had. By the time this particular young woman was in her twenties, her mom had had a stroke due to her drug usage and the daughter was taking care of her and herself.
This young woman did not take life laying down. She worked her butt off. By the way, just for the record, this young woman is not beautiful - and she doesn't even know who her daddy is. But she applied herself in high school and she applied for every scholarship and every bit of student aid she could possibly qualify for - and she went to a local college. She got a business degree, while working in a nursing home AND taking care of her mom. Her mom's health improved, she got on disability, and the young woman graduated and began working for the US postal service.
She met a good guy, and they've been happily married now for about 10 years. She is working for the postal service and that's good retirement. Her husband has some sort of full time job in some field that pays decently - I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. But they own their own home. Their kid has a mother AND a father. They are solidly middle class folks and haven't made minimum wage since they were teens and she was working in fast food part time and going to school.
Her sister joined the military and earned her college education via the GI Bill. However, she has decided to make the Navy a career so I don't know the status of her college education. I do know that she is also happily married and has a child - in that order (same with her sister).
These are two AA girls who grew up on the streets, with a single, drug addicted mother and no telling who their daddies are, though I'm pretty sure they have two different dads. In their thirties, living balanced middle class lives full of soccer, mini vans, church on Sunday, drive thru food on practice days, going home to comfortable, safe homes and neighborhoods.
Like the two examples I just gave. There are lots more where that came from.
Heck, I'll give you another one - even younger. This particular African American young woman is in her thirties. She was born to a single AA mom with a serious crack habit. She grew up in the projects, as her mom had. By the time this particular young woman was in her twenties, her mom had had a stroke due to her drug usage and the daughter was taking care of her and herself.
This young woman did not take life laying down. She worked her butt off. By the way, just for the record, this young woman is not beautiful - and she doesn't even know who her daddy is. But she applied herself in high school and she applied for every scholarship and every bit of student aid she could possibly qualify for - and she went to a local college. She got a business degree, while working in a nursing home AND taking care of her mom. Her mom's health improved, she got on disability, and the young woman graduated and began working for the US postal service.
She met a good guy, and they've been happily married now for about 10 years. She is working for the postal service and that's good retirement. Her husband has some sort of full time job in some field that pays decently - I can't remember what it is off the top of my head. But they own their own home. Their kid has a mother AND a father. They are solidly middle class folks and haven't made minimum wage since they were teens and she was working in fast food part time and going to school.
Her sister joined the military and earned her college education via the GI Bill. However, she has decided to make the Navy a career so I don't know the status of her college education. I do know that she is also happily married and has a child - in that order (same with her sister).
These are two AA girls who grew up on the streets, with a single, drug addicted mother and no telling who their daddies are, though I'm pretty sure they have two different dads. In their thirties, living balanced middle class lives full of soccer, mini vans, church on Sunday, drive thru food on practice days, going home to comfortable, safe homes and neighborhoods.
Never use excuses I totally agree, 99 percent of people are just victims of their own poor choices.
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