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It's real hard to "get out there and get yours" when you have a limited education and no job skills, in the past employers hired apprentices, now they want taxpayers to train their workers for them in community colleges, and even when they are hired, wages are usually low and there's no real career path as there was in the past. Workers are expendable, jobs are temporary. The right did a fine job of killing unions so now workers are left to negotiate pay raises with a CEO who they will never meet in person or be able to talk to. It's just a super environment for getting out and getting yours
The formula has never changed, and will never change. Be valuable and you will do well. You collectivists always think that it’s “tougher now” and life is impossible without becoming a conniving scheming mob oriented thief. Not true. The destruction of unions is the best thing to ever happen. Unions = Mediocrity. Enshrined and institutionalized mediocrity. Do as little as possible, and never be fired. Eff that. Produce or GTFO.
That's not success, that's relative poverty. Success in this country is being able to afford a house, have a kid or two, a new car and occasional vacation here or there; you know, the stereotypical middle class existence.
Sorry, owning a house and a nice lifestyle is not a right. It is something that must be earned. If you can’t earn it, you can’t have it.
But it is completely doable if you take care of business:
1) Finish school
2) No kids (until after you own the house)
3) Don’t be a drunk
4) Don’t do any drugs
5) Work 60+ hours a week when you are in your 20s. Work 2 jobs if you must.
6) Used car or public transportation
7) Live modestly, no I-phone, no flat screen, no bull$hit toys
8) Save, save, save
9) No vacations, just work and save
10) Be the best, or close to it, at every job you take
11) Don’t get fat, stay in shape.
Now you are 32. And you are set. You have a huge down payment on a house. You have health, life, and disability insurance. You have savings. You have a retirement plan set up that is already multiplying. You are in your prime income producing years and you look like an effing catch to the best members of the opposite sex (or same sex if that’s your thing).
Your 20s are your set-up years. You are supposed to kick a$$ while you are young and super energetic. To set yourself up for your 30s, when success REALLY starts to kick in.
Anybody can do this. Plumber, retail worker, accountant, car salesman, doctor. Doesn’t matter. Yes the doctor will have millions to work with, the retail worker might have $200,000. But both are successes and both are kicking it.
[quote=Marc Paolella;54511261]Sorry, owning a house and a nice lifestyle is not a right. It is something that must be earned. If you can’t earn it, you can’t have it.
But it is completely doable if you take care of business:
1) Finish school
2) No kids (until after you own the house)
3) Don’t be a drunk
4) Don’t do any drugs
5) Work 60+ hours a week when you are in your 20s. Work 2 jobs if you must.
6) Used car or public transportation
7) Live modestly, no I-phone, no flat screen, no bull$hit toys
8) Save, save, save
9) No vacations, just work and save
10) Be the best, or close to it, at every job you take
11) Don’t get fat, stay in shape.
Now you are 32. And you are set. You have a huge down payment on a house. You have health, life, and disability insurance. You have savings. You have a retirement plan set up that is already multiplying. You are in your prime income producing years and you look like an effing catch to the best members of the opposite sex (or same sex if that’s your thing).
Your 20s are your set-up years. You are supposed to kick a$$ while you are young and super energetic. To set yourself up for your 30s, when success REALLY starts to kick in.
Anybody can do this. Plumber, retail worker, accountant, car salesman, doctor. Doesn’t matter. Yes the doctor will have millions to work with, the retail worker might have $200,000. But both are successes and both are kicking it.[/QUOT
You`re a tad militant and that turns people off but there is some merit in there otherwise.
I don’t have to. They already know it. Too bad you don’t.
When you work full time and cant afford basic stuff like rent (let alone a house payment), a car, utilities, medical care etc, the country should not consider that a success.
The formula has never changed, and will never change. Be valuable and you will do well. You collectivists always think that it’s “tougher now” and life is impossible without becoming a conniving scheming mob oriented thief. Not true. The destruction of unions is the best thing to ever happen. Unions = Mediocrity. Enshrined and institutionalized mediocrity. Do as little as possible, and never be fired. Eff that. Produce or GTFO.
Where I work the job I started off doing is now done by contractors making appx. 1/3 what I currently do. That job was one you were hired into to do and as other jobs became open you were able to move into them.
25 years ago when I was hired I started at $9.79. I had benefits including medical and retirement. 25 years later and that job pays around $10.50 with none of the benefits and no opportunity for advancement.
Those people are providing a valuable service. Just like many places where I work is constantly looking to cut back the total number of jobs. When I started we had 8 mechanics. Now we have two. There is very little hiring so those working the contract positions rarely get that opportunity. (a very small number do).
I will note that we are not union but I will also note that 25 years ago a person could make a middle class life working at a union grocery store such as Krogers. People still were able to afford to shop there. Krogers did very well. You can no longer live a middle class life working full time at Wal Mart.
When you work full time and cant afford basic stuff like rent (let alone a house payment), a car, utilities, medical care etc, the country should not consider that a success.
What wrong with sharing a two-bedroom apartment with another low earner? As far as medical care, it's free; utilities are subsidized; and plenty of people take public transportation.
Here's my definition of success: grandparents* who flee persecution in Europe, move into tenements that only supply heat from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., share a common bathroom with other tenants, and still manage to have all their children graduate from college. They didn't ask for a thing from the government - other than opportunity.
Blacks have opportunity. We have affirmative action to give them a tremendous "leg up" in college admissions and Pell Grants and other financial need to help them pay for their education. All it takes is to buckle down, get good grades, NO BABIES (!), and start by enrolling in community college after high school.
What wrong with sharing a two-bedroom apartment with another low earner?
Not the topic I commented on. The comment was if you provide a valuable service you will be able to afford all these great things. I was showing that is getting less and less true.
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