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Success remains relatively simple in this country:
1. Go to school and make good grades.
Don't be developmentally delayed or super slow.
2. Continue on to higher education.
Repeat above. Make sure you are smart enough to get in. You lose points if you are so disabled that you can't learn to read at a college level.
3. Be smart about your field and the jobs you take.
And God forbid that you ever get injured or develop a chronic condition before you have a career. Not only will you be unemployable, you'll also be uninsurable.
4. Work hard. By that, I don't mean do what is asked of you. Rather, do more than what is asked of you and always work to learn more.
Repeat above.
5. Save 10% of your take home. No. Matter. What. If you are spending everything you make, then you likely allowed your appetites get ahead of your income.
Especially if all you can find is a part-time minimum wage job, maxing out at $10k/year. You don't really need to eat three times a day, do you? Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.
6. Network, network, network.
Coming up in the hood is good for this. You meet all the best people.
7. Always watch what you spend. Avoid debt at all costs. That means driving your car for ten years, buying a more modest house, and doing without.
Who needs a car? You can patch together a bike with parts for next to nothing. And why pay money for a house when you can stay at a shelter for free?
8. Strive to work for yourself. The chances of your getting wealthy working for someone else are slim and none.
Entrepreneurship is definitely the way to go. Get out there and pick up cans for recycling. No employer needed for that gig.
The problem? Most people just lack either the courage, the initiative, or the discipline to do that. So they get into their 40s and blame everyone and everything but themselves. Hey, I've worked for myself for twenty years now. There are times when it was rough, really rough. But I'm in a much better situation than the people I know who decided to be corporate drones. I'm not bragging here. It's pretty much true of anyone who decided to be an entrepreneur and stuck with it.
Again, what about the people who lack the intelligence or the health or the home training to be able to become entrepreneurs? Is it their fault that they were born without the ability to learn? Or born into a family that taught them otherwise? You were fortunate enough that you kept a mind and body that were able to provide well for you and your family. There is a whole segment of the population that is too able to qualify for disability but too unable to make a real life for themselves in this economy. Maybe you just don't see them.
Last edited by TheViking85; 09-06-2011 at 11:01 PM..
I would like to see a society that distributes wealth evenly enough that people worked because they wanted not because the had to. Let the machines make the wealth and share it with everyone not just the "owners". We are far too dependant on the employers that are trying to get rid of employees ever trust them.
Again, what about the people who lack the intelligence or the health or the home training to be able to become entrepreneurs? Is it their fault that they were born without the ability to learn? Or born into a family that taught them otherwise? You were fortunate enough that you kept a mind and body that were able to provide well for you and your family. There is a whole segment of the population that is too able to qualify for disability but too unable to make a real life for themselves in this economy. Maybe you just don't see them.
I don't think this poster is addressing special needs people, but the sort whom I used to work with - people making a great deal more than I, yet spending every cent and some, even more so. Then they cry when the economy changes and they are caught with their pants down.
I would like to see a society that distributes wealth evenly enough that people worked because they wanted not because the had to. Let the machines make the wealth and share it with everyone not just the "owners". We are far too dependant on the employers that are trying to get rid of employees ever trust them.
I agree. Remember, years back, we were told of the world of the future, when we would all work a four hour day and spend our lives playing? Instead some of us are working a fifty or sixty hour work week collecting a 35 hour salary while others of us live in poverty.
Yeah. We certainly did not construct a civilization that creates well rounded and educated citizens, did we? It's the law of the jungle, only with brief cases.
I agree. Remember, years back, we were told of the world of the future, when we would all work a four hour day and spend our lives playing? Instead some of us are working a fifty or sixty hour work week collecting a 35 hour salary while others of us live in poverty.
Yeah. We certainly did not construct a civilization that creates well rounded and educated citizens, did we? It's the law of the jungle, only with brief cases.
its not about doing a 50 hour week, its not about even about the work, - its about the dependence on employers - even if your earning a lot of money your still reliant on employers - in fact you probably more reliant on them.
its the fact that 90 percent of every thing you do in your life - is basically revolving around that - from the skills you learn, the people you know, your outlook, your family life.
You can have all the employment laws in the world, but if your bosses want rid of you for whatever reason they will, they might just have got bored with you.
We live in a culture that promotes freedom of the individual, the self reliant, self seeking individual, yet at the same time promotes corporate careerism which is quite a bit away from a free market of employees where people are free compete to sell there services and goods - where promotions, payrises, firings, opportunities are usually cloaked in secrecy, intrigue, nepotism.
For example corporate workers look down on McDonalds jobs because of the lack of prestige, poor wages, mindless work, and lack of benefits, - but in other than financially are they really better off. There are just higher paid slaves.
Last edited by mikeyking; 09-09-2011 at 10:50 AM..
I agree. Remember, years back, we were told of the world of the future, when we would all work a four hour day and spend our lives playing? Instead some of us are working a fifty or sixty hour work week collecting a 35 hour salary while others of us live in poverty.
Yeah. We certainly did not construct a civilization that creates well rounded and educated citizens, did we? It's the law of the jungle, only with brief cases.
The Jetsons made this a running gag in their cartoon in the 60s and 70s, with George often complaining about the 7-10 hour workweeks just killing him.
I think a lot of the boomer generation (and millennials) just coasted along, and didn't confront what it would take to make such a fantasy a reality. We don't need 7-10 hour workweeks, but political capital exists to create 30-35 hour workweeks with govt-mandated vacation. They do this in Europe, and the workers are actually MORE productive.
What sense does it make to work our employees to death when it brings no added profit? Aren't rested, educated, healthy, worry-free workers the most innovative and productive?
The Jetsons made this a running gag in their cartoon in the 60s and 70s, with George often complaining about the 7-10 hour workweeks just killing him.
I think a lot of the boomer generation (and millennials) just coasted along, and didn't confront what it would take to make such a fantasy a reality. We don't need 7-10 hour workweeks, but political capital exists to create 30-35 hour workweeks with govt-mandated vacation. They do this in Europe, and the workers are actually MORE productive.
What sense does it make to work our employees to death when it brings no added profit? Aren't rested, educated, healthy, worry-free workers the most innovative and productive?
I believe one of the biggest hinders for this to become reality in the US is accessibility to cheap labor.
Most of the successful European countries have a constant need for skilled labor in nearly every field, where in the US there's almost always someone in line waiting to take your job, and often for less than what you're paid. When employers have that sort of accessibility to labor, there's much less incentive for workers rights and innovation.
One example of this that stands out for me, as I have experience in the construction industry, is the application of so called Rotor-Tilt attachments on excavators. What they essentially do is enable the operator to increase his/her efficiency many fold (off the top of my head, I believe they say increased efficiency is something in the 4 to 6 times), these attachments are extremely popular in Norway and Germany, with increasing popularity in the UK, they're popular because an operator is paid upwards of $80k plus overtime and all the benefits you mention. When you make that kind of investment in someone, you want them to be as effective as possible, and when he/she can do that work 4 to 6 times as fast as someone who doesn't have it, he/she essentially pays for him/her self.
In a work environment where an operator is (relatively) cheap to hire however, and where there's plenty waiting in line to do his job if he's not willing to do as you require, that kind of investment makes less sense.
So the way I see it, the biggest hinder to this form of progression is the US unemployement rate and (bloated) worker pool.
This is where I see government involvement as being necessary. There are 310 million people in this country. 20 years ago there was barely 200 million. Yet every politician who hopes to keep his job MUST talk about how bigger government is evil, and should be scaled back. This cuts against common sense. We cannot change the nature of the economy, supply and demand, or the fundamental nature of a corporation's duty to serve its shareholders, but we can change how that government controls restrictions on corporations, and create an atmosphere where job-creation is a goal. NAFTA was a huge mistake that has destroyed American jobs for 20 years. I think we need to create more incentives for companies to keep the manufacturing base here; and it wouldn't be a bad idea for there to be more incentive (and affordability) for Americans to attend college here, so the next waive of innovation is American-made, and American-run.
What we have now is improved technological advances, and massive wealth, all in the hands of the few. This is neither in the interests of the poor and middle class, or the wealthy. We do ourselves no favors by destroying the consumer class. We need that wealth to be shared, simply put.
Either that, or we better prepare for a burgeoning underclass.
Last edited by califorlorn; 09-09-2011 at 04:32 PM..
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Originally Posted by lhpartridge
Again, what about the people who lack the intelligence or the health or the home training to be able to become entrepreneurs? Is it their fault that they were born without the ability to learn? Or born into a family that taught them otherwise? You were fortunate enough that you kept a mind and body that were able to provide well for you and your family. There is a whole segment of the population that is too able to qualify for disability but too unable to make a real life for themselves in this economy. Maybe you just don't see them.
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I don't think this poster is addressing special needs people, but the sort whom I used to work with - people making a great deal more than I, yet spending every cent and some, even more so. Then they cry when the economy changes and they are caught with their pants down.
I'm not talking about people with special needs. I'm talking about the ones who just barely don't qualify as having special needs--those who can read, but not well enough to go to college. People who have bad memories, or who can't learn how to operate a computer, but who are decent, hard-working people.
Then there are the people whose families taught them to lie, cheat, and steal. How are they supposed to know any better? Especially when they risk physical abuse or death if they don't do what they're told? At what age are they able to know better and turn away from their family before they themselves succumb to that way of life?
I'm not talking about people with special needs. I'm talking about the ones who just barely don't qualify as having special needs--those who can read, but not well enough to go to college. People who have bad memories, or who can't learn how to operate a computer, but who are decent, hard-working people.
Then there are the people whose families taught them to lie, cheat, and steal. How are they supposed to know any better? Especially when they risk physical abuse or death if they don't do what they're told? At what age are they able to know better and turn away from their family before they themselves succumb to that way of life?
Is this not the dilemma of many civilizations through time? There have always been the few at top and the many at the bottom, lacking either skills or intelligence or training or family background - and they have always suffered.
The only systems I can think of that protects the wellbeing of these souls is socialism or communism. Most Western countries have some mixture of socialism and capitalism, recognizing our responsibilities toward each other and caring for each other as part of the human family.
I always feel that, but for the accident of birth, I may have been born into a much worse situation. Most religions teach this.
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