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There's a lot of discussion on why the poor are poor and why the rich are rich. However, i've thought about it and i'm sure most of us were read this story as children.
How many of you all complaining are Grasshoppers? How many of us supporting you are Ants?
In the end just like the fable the rich go out of there way to take care of you and bring you in. Poor people consistently make bad choices, because there's not a lot of accountability for the bad choices they make. Sure, it can be argued that America makes people suffer more for bad choices than the rest of the Western World, but the rich of our country also go beyond teh call of duty to help the American poor, which is often times more determintal to them. Will the poor ever learn not to be grasshoppers if they are consistently bailed out?
Anyway who else read this story and thinks it holds some meaning in this socitey for rich vs poor and making the right choices!
It's just a story some dead dude may or may not have written thousands of years ago about saving up for a time of need. Which means it really doesn't explain why people are poor or rich. If you want to read that much into that story, then you'll probably also believe any number of simple-minded explanations. A problem like poverty is complex, like many things in the real world, and there are no easy answers. I know conservatives like to make them appear very simple and easy (and not their fault at all, thus absolving them of any responsibility), but this is childish thinking.
It's just a story some dead dude may or may not have written thousands of years ago about saving up for a time of need. Which means it really doesn't explain why people are poor or rich. If you want to read that much into that story, then you'll probably also believe any number of simple-minded explanations. A problem like poverty is complex, like many things in the real world, and there are no easy answers. I know conservatives like to make them appear very simple and easy (and not their fault at all, thus absolving them of any responsibility), but this is childish thinking.
That's remarkably simliar to the mind-set of liberals -- who like to make the answer appear simple and easy, since whatever happens to anyone is not their fault at all (thus absolving them of any responsibility).
It's just a story some dead dude may or may not have written thousands of years ago about saving up for a time of need. Which means it really doesn't explain why people are poor or rich. If you want to read that much into that story, then you'll probably also believe any number of simple-minded explanations. A problem like poverty is complex, like many things in the real world, and there are no easy answers. I know conservatives like to make them appear very simple and easy (and not their fault at all, thus absolving them of any responsibility), but this is childish thinking.
No the point to all of this is, it is very simple. Lazy people and people that do not want to work hard want to make it seem as if it is complex.
I'll tell you what my father told me at 14. "Hey son, you want to be wealthy by the time you're 30?" I said, "Yes, sure!" my father responded, "Well here's the secret."
1. Do not spend more than you make
2. Save the excess money you make
3. Work Hard at whatever you do (If you're a janitor be the best dam janitor in the world.
4. Invest in appreciating assets that will return you greater amounts of money
5. Avoid investing in assets that will depreciate money
Finally he said, "Son, when you're wealthy always remember you are not what you have or what you own define yourself as who you are"
In other words it is very easy to be rich in this country if you follow the steps to success. There is no complex book on how to get this done. If you want to be poor do the opposite of the 5 steps on a consistent basis and you'll be there. In the end no matter how you end up wealthy or poor character matters, because you have to define who you are!
That's remarkably simliar to the mind-set of liberals -- who like to make the answer appear simple and easy, since whatever happens to anyone is not their fault at all (thus absolving them of any responsibility).
I prefer to see it as liberals and progressives look for solutions to problems, whereas conservatives are looking to deflect blame and criticism through denial and obfuscation.
Wheather the grasshopper is lazy or not... doesn't really matter. A rational person would want to know why the grasshopper was lazy. Conservatives aren't interested. They believe in a pre-scientific worldview where people are free to choose all their actions and nothing is ever remotely coerced, no arms are ever twisted by the invisible hand of oligarchs or plutocrats, hence people are wholely guilty for all their choices. Ironicly, seeing them as morally free agents conservatives regard these people with very little empathy or pity, desite their religious pretentions, they do not believe they are their brother's keeper.
Oh, and if you want to be poor you only have to do one of those five. Sometimes even you play by the rules and you still get burnt. Investing in stuff like stocks or housing, which suppossedly only go up, right? As I said before, sometimes you don't really have a choice. Maybe choice is an illusion created by people with power to use against those who do not have power?
I'm sorry you feel that way, but choices matter. If you're wealthy you can afford to make a boat load of bad choices, because they will not affect you the same way they will affect someone else.
If you're poor you do not have the same margin of error to make bad choices and you sure as heck cannot make them on such a consistent basis. About the only thing the poor do on a consistent basis is make bad choices. Universally that's the one thing they're good at! If poor people could be bet on vegas it would be like 50 to 1 on poor choices.
Think about one of the greatest biblical stories ever told and how important the right of choice was! Its the greatest power you have as free thinking individuals. You have the ability to reason right from wrong and thus make the right choices.
Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden tree was all about the power and free will of choice. Sure there are oligarchs, invisible hands, and plutocrats, that will attempt to coerce you, but in the end you have the right to free choice and regardless of what someone else told you to do in the end you made the choice to do it.
Location: Jonquil City (aka Smyrna) Georgia- by Atlanta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by truthhurts
There's a lot of discussion on why the poor are poor and why the rich are rich. However, i've thought about it and i'm sure most of us were read this story as children.
How many of you all complaining are Grasshoppers? How many of us supporting you are Ants?
In the end just like the fable the rich go out of there way to take care of you and bring you in. Poor people consistently make bad choices, because there's not a lot of accountability for the bad choices they make. Sure, it can be argued that America makes people suffer more for bad choices than the rest of the Western World, but the rich of our country also go beyond teh call of duty to help the American poor, which is often times more determintal to them. Will the poor ever learn not to be grasshoppers if they are consistently bailed out?
Anyway who else read this story and thinks it holds some meaning in this socitey for rich vs poor and making the right choices!
I just do not agree with that. Some people are poor because of choices they made. They drink, do drugs, dropped out of school and do not want to work. On that we agree. BUT I do not agree that most poor people are poor because of bad choices. Most are poor because they just did not get the breaks in life that others get. Some people are just "born losers" to put it in plainspeak. Much of people's lives is decided for them even before they are born. If you are born smart and/or good looking you will have a fairly easy life. If you blessed at birth with a beautiful voice or great athletic ability, you will have a very easy and happy life. If you are born into an upper class family, you will have a fairly easy life. If you are born poor and ugly, you will have a very hard life and it will be very difficult for you to attain a higher station EVEN if you obey "the rules" (finish high school, stay out of trouble with the law and don't do drugs or get pregnant).
I just do not agree with that. Some people are poor because of choices they made. They drink, do drugs, dropped out of school and do not want to work. On that we agree. BUT I do not agree that most poor people are poor because of bad choices. Most are poor because they just did not get the breaks in life that others get. Some people are just "born losers" to put it in plainspeak. Much of people's lives is decided for them even before they are born. If you are born smart and/or good looking you will have a fairly easy life. If you blessed at birth with a beautiful voice or great athletic ability, you will have a very easy and happy life. If you are born into an upper class family, you will have a fairly easy life. If you are born poor and ugly, you will have a very hard life and it will be very difficult for you to attain a higher station EVEN if you obey "the rules" (finish high school, stay out of trouble with the law and don't do drugs or get pregnant).
People born into a good situation have it easier than those born into a bad one. There is no question about that. However, they are not stuck in those positions. Their situations can be reversed completely based on the choices they make.
There's a lot of discussion on why the poor are poor and why the rich are rich. However, i've thought about it and i'm sure most of us were read this story as children.
How many of you all complaining are Grasshoppers? How many of us supporting you are Ants?
In the end just like the fable the rich go out of there way to take care of you and bring you in. Poor people consistently make bad choices, because there's not a lot of accountability for the bad choices they make. Sure, it can be argued that America makes people suffer more for bad choices than the rest of the Western World, but the rich of our country also go beyond teh call of duty to help the American poor, which is often times more determintal to them. Will the poor ever learn not to be grasshoppers if they are consistently bailed out?
Anyway who else read this story and thinks it holds some meaning in this socitey for rich vs poor and making the right choices!
Yep...
The old "save for a rainy day" story. Of course, those with lots of resources have no trouble with that savings. Those without access to resources can't. How does that explain the rich/poor dichotomy?
However, they are not stuck in those positions. Their situations can be reversed completely based on the choices they make.
They CAN be, but any competent rich person in this day and age will have the lawyers set up some trusts, accounts, and safety nets for the kids. If you are born into a rich family and somehow, against all statistical odds, end up poor, then you are really in the extreme minority of rich folks. In the modern economy, wealth perpetuates wealth.
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