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Pray tell, if you aren't controlling your life....who is???? The little green men? We control every aspect of our life by the choices we make. Nothing "happens" to us buy by our own hand. How absurd to believe that we are hapless victims of some unseen, malevolent force. Hogwash. That is victim mentality.
We choose wrong and we suffer the consequences, we choose right and we reap the benefits. I believe it the bible it says something like.... "What ye sow, surely ye shall reap".
20yrsinBranson
Illness and ineffective health insurance impoverish people. Even with "good" insurance, the co-pays can wipe you out. Life isn't so black-and-white. Bad investment practices on Wall Street can wipe out someone's retirement. If you think you can control everything, you're probably a control freak.
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 10-23-2012 at 01:52 AM..
Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people. This 'bad decision making' is a pile of nonsense, designed to absolve society of the responsibility of taking care of the poor.
Those Wall Street guys made a lot of bad decisions that ended up affecting millions of people, yet they are still wealthy, rather than struggling to make ends meet, living in a dangerous ghetto of hopelessness. Fair?
In my opinion, the person with the most intelligent analysis and solution to the issue of poverty was writer Ivan Illich.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mörkrädd
Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people. This 'bad decision making' is a pile of nonsense, designed to absolve society of the responsibility of taking care of the poor.
Excellent comment, and true.
Quote:
Those Wall Street guys made a lot of bad decisions that ended up affecting millions of people, yet they are still wealthy,
Consider the recent "National Mortgage Settlement." The government supposedly went after the mortgage banks who cheated the public in order to recover the money and give it back. So each person who was victim and lost tens of thousands in the home he/she lost, will receive a few hundred dollars back. Okay ... the government had the right idea, and I'm sure more than one person working in the government really wanted to do the right thing, but when it comes to money the "right thing" always ends up getting convolulted, doesn't it.
Many people always assume I'm poor and make minimum wage because I don't buy much in the way of status symbols and things to "show off" such as designer clothes, new cars, houses, etc. I'd rather spend that money on my own enjoyment (and I still have plenty left to save.)
Planning for contingencies like job loss and medical issues is definitely within control though. That's why there are such things as emergency funds, insurance and 401K. People who refuse to take into account that there are certain things that could happen then act as though that all the ills that are associated with it are unforseeable acts of nature like a lighting strike all the while continue to live the high life and dip their hands into the emergency funds of those of us who carefully plan for it do not get my respect at all. I might help them with my money but they're definitely not entitled to it.
How does someone save up all this money if they never had any in the first place? That's what is not being taken in to account.
The posts on here are all acting like people all start off with some big nest egg and then by sheer laziness and bad choices, lose it all.
If one never had money in the first place, how do they "plan for contingencies" such as job loss, medical issues and stock up a 401K, let alone an emergency fund?
How does someone save up all this money if they never had any in the first place? That's what is not being taken in to account.
The posts on here are all acting like people all start off with some big nest egg and then by sheer laziness and bad choices, lose it all.
If one never had money in the first place, how do they "plan for contingencies" such as job loss, medical issues and stock up a 401K, let alone an emergency fund?
There are countless people who started adult life in the red or with nothing (student loan, children and family to support) who managed to climb out of the hole and build a saving for themselves. There are tons of migrants workers who came here with nothing but clothes on their back and less support than your established citizens here who manage to save up money to send back to their native countries. How did they do it? Giving up things a lot of people take for granted. Cables, alcohol, eating out, cigarettes, extra phone lines, tablet computers and lottery. These things add up.
It's not like everyone with a saving started their lives rolling. And a lot of these skills are widely available on the world wide web like The Simple Dollar.
I work in the IT startup world in Silicon Valley and I honestly don't know why I work here, because the inequities of money distribution and the way employees are treated is contrary to what I believe in.
If you don't know how to negotiate your compensation and stock package, you are food for the sharks. They will attempt to bid you as low as they when offering you a job, and make it sound like they are offering you a great deal. In reality, they are giving you peanuts and they expect you to work like a slave.
I see it in my current workplace with new employees. I work in a technology startup. The executive team are millionaires. For example, the V.P. of Technology lives in a $7million house. The V.P. of marketing drives a $300,000 Bentley. In case you aren't aware, these people don't take out loan to buy such things - they purchase them with cash.
The entire exec team is about a dozen individuals (the company is about 150 employees).
All employees get equity in the startup (stock options.) When you interview is when you negotiate how many shares of stock you get. The millionaires in the exec team are the ones who decide how many shares you get. They will talk you down as much as they can and make it sound like they are bending over backwards to give you a good deal. If you don't know how to negotiate, you will get peanuts.
For example, an IT administrator who was hired almost a year ago got 2,500 shares of stock. Each share is expected to be worth about $7 when the company goes IPO in a couple years. Thsi particular employee works like slave. He is always running around, doing a good job, keeping the organization's IT needs running smoothly. He puts in 11 hours a day.
Let's put his 2,500 shares into perspective.
There is a recent Ph.D. engineer hire who received 30,000 shares plus a $20,000 signing bonus and a $140k salary for joining.
The original software engineers who started with the company shortly after its founding own 300,000 shares each.
There is a millionaire engineer who started a couple years ago. He previously worked with certain members of the exec team in the past. He owns 250,000 shares of stock.
Each member of the exec team is in possession of 750,000+ shares.
The aforementioned V.P. of Technology owns 2.5 million shares. This particular V.P. is the one who offered 2500 shares to the IT administrator.
I don't ba;me the poor for being poor but they can't blame me for being more successful. In the end if they are poor and lazy :I think they just take away from mnay who are handicapped and poor because of it.
All employees get equity in the startup (stock options.) When you interview is when you negotiate how many shares of stock you get. The millionaires in the exec team are the ones who decide how many shares you get. They will talk you down as much as they can and make it sound like they are bending over backwards to give you a good deal. If you don't know how to negotiate, you will get peanuts.
For example, an IT administrator who was hired almost a year ago got 2,500 shares of stock. Each share is expected to be worth about $7 when the company goes IPO in a couple years. Thsi particular employee works like slave. He is always running around, doing a good job, keeping the organization's IT needs running smoothly. He puts in 11 hours a day.
So the income distribution of your workplace has more to do social skills and certain qualifications like advance degrees and perhaps a brand name college or coming from a brand name company...which is quite normal among a lot of workplaces and could explain other things like gender income inequality. Still your anecdote fails to show that the particular IT administrator is anything close to what we know as poor or that most poor people are poor due to the lack of social skills and/or advanced degrees, brand name school and colleges and possibly connections.
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