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The average American is also materialistic, spoiled & buys things he/she does not need. What Americans think a necessity is non Americans would laugh about.
I'd love to see all these people who can not pay their bills not check one of the following:
Having a child out of wedlock before financially being able to care for one.
Being in major debt because of going to a 4 year college instead of a 2 year first.
Having a brand new car in the last 5 years.
Spending over 40% of there income on things that are not necessities. I.e. smart phone, brand name clothes, shoes, cigs, alcohol.
I did none of those things, ended up becoming disabled due to a connective tissue disorder and other genetic conditions.
Yet I've known people who did some or all of those things listed yet ended up well off, at least comparatively.
The average American is also materialistic, spoiled & buys things he/she does not need. What Americans think a necessity is non Americans would laugh about.
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Ah, the "we should be more like 3rd world countries and then they would make it" excuse! Fantastic....
Note, people in (most of) those 3rd world countries have TV's, Phones and food.
It's "you" (plural) that have forced a low wage worker to buy a car....since it is proven that you cannot survive and work in this country without one (yes, there are a few exceptions, but this is widely accepted..you NEED a car).
The $20 a month for a phone (home phones, which these replace, used to cost MUCH more) isn't what is keeping Americans from prospering. It is largely our politics and policies.
Not to say there would not be poor people....but there would not be nearly as many WORKING poor.
I did none of those things, ended up becoming disabled due to a connective tissue disorder and other genetic conditions.
Yet I've known people who did some or all of those things listed yet ended up well off, at least comparatively.
Your situation, having a medical condition, is much less common than people who have terrible spending habits. And the reasons for that are a combination of ignorance and a lack of using their brain cells for thinking... and Americans being optimistic about their lives. i.e. thinking that they won't lose their job, they'll get a raise, or that their god will protect them from any disaster ("Jesus take the wheel!").
Not to say there would not be poor people....but there would not be nearly as many WORKING poor.
The "working poor" that I see are people who... didn't bother to acquire a desirable job skill, had children (many out of wedlock) that they had too early in life or just had way too many of them, smoke cigarettes and are habitual drinkers of alcohol... and later on in life, these "working poor" have cancers and beer guts.
Ah, the "we should be more like 3rd world countries and then they would make it" excuse! Fantastic....
Note, people in (most of) those 3rd world countries have TV's, Phones and food.
Have you ever been to a 3rd world country? Even in Puerto Rico (part of the US), and even before the hurricane, people were living in scrap plywood shack slums without electricity, running water, etc.
The "working poor" that I see are people who... didn't bother to acquire a desirable job skill, had children (many out of wedlock) that they had too early in life or just had way too many of them, smoke cigarettes and are habitual drinkers of alcohol... and later on in life, these "working poor" have cancers and beer guts.
These people have held themselves back.
What came first, the chicken or the egg?
There are MANY millionaires who smoke and drink to excess...always have been. Guess it didn't apply to them.
Germans are perhaps the single most successful people on the planet and any American who drank that much beer would be considered an alcoholic. It used to be (2-3 decades ago) that vast numbers of Germans, Danes, etc. smoked....it was quite normal.
So, what is the difference? I say it is that Denmark and Germany have social policies (educational, testing, vocational, etc.) that allow people to learn those skill...in fact, pretty much force them to do so. Also, once you learn those skills you often get a Union job making the US equiv. of $30-$50 an hour (with benefits)...sometimes more.
Here, if if you learn a skill, you are at the mercy of the so-called "free market". If there are too many plumbers you are because the pricing will come down and down and down. You can then get a job at Home Depot for $15 an hour after peeing in a cup and consider yourself lucky.
There is a difference. For many the American Dream has become a nightmare. They played largely by the rules but the game is rigged away From the People.
No one denies that it is possible to make it here. Even easy if the stars are all aligned. But we can certainly do better than, for example, to have 46% of Floridians not making it and having the pols there tell us it is the BEST EVER.
Let's at least get our definitions straight. No, that's not a good thing....no matter who you want to blame it on.
Last edited by CaseyB; 07-25-2019 at 11:57 AM..
Reason: language
Ah, the "we should be more like 3rd world countries and then they would make it" excuse! Fantastic....
Americans should live like their ancestors from the countries they came from, and like the Americans who survived the Great Depression.
Traditional Asians (not like they are living today) lived very frugally and saved their money. They paid in cash, not with credit. And families would invest in themselves, by living under one roof to save money, and also all family members pooling their money and time in order to open up a family business. They were also willing to work multiple jobs in order to reach their goals. And the purpose of arranged marriages was to improve the family's fortunes by making strong alliances with other successful families.
My husband's grandparents lived through the Great Depression. Even at the end of her life, she would reuse ziplock bags by washing them out. I never saw her with any jewelry except her wedding band and necklace with a cross on it. They started out in life with nothing, but with working two jobs and wise investments, at the end they had a sizable estate to leave their three adopted children and their kids... plus during their lifetime, they made a large contribution to a local college towards a new science building.
Ah, the "we should be more like 3rd world countries and then they would make it" excuse! Fantastic....
Note, people in (most of) those 3rd world countries have TV's, Phones and food.
It's "you" (plural) that have forced a low wage worker to buy a car....since it is proven that you cannot survive and work in this country without one (yes, there are a few exceptions, but this is widely accepted..you NEED a car).
The $20 a month for a phone (home phones, which these replace, used to cost MUCH more) isn't what is keeping Americans from prospering. It is largely our politics and policies.
Not to say there would not be poor people....but there would not be nearly as many WORKING poor.
Maybe this is something like how some people see the glass half full rather than half empty, but every time I see these sorts of statistics it sure seems the glass is hardly full at all for all too many people...
Right here in 2015, a full 13 percent of the entire world's population are still living without access to an improved sanitation facility and are forced to defecate in the open. That's close to a billion people.
Right, but maybe they have a TV and phone and food. Maybe we also need to be specific about the 3rd world country in question...
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