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- #41
why? are you wealthy? you know, given that you're giving all of this advice.
Why what?
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why? are you wealthy? you know, given that you're giving all of this advice.
Most people aren't wealthy for much of the same reason poor people aren't middle class.
They just don't know how.
Simple as that.
Well that and a mixture of "Rich People" skirting laws and being pretty ruthless. Take for example the moving company I use to work for..
Initially the owner paid everyone under the table, he didn't claim anything in taxes and functioned completely under the radar for the first few years. Then when he was making to much money..he claimed half the income he was getting. He was real dodgy with employees. On one job I was with..with him as the foreman..the customer gave me a washer/dryer as a tip..while giving him nothing. On the way back to the warehouse he said to me, "You know that washer/dryer is mine..right?". Later, as he became bigger, he hired ex-cons and other people down on their luck. He hired one guy who was a master carpenter..who single handedly built him a warehouse filled with storage bins. He wound up paying the guy like five dollars an hour for his work (off the books of course). As he became bigger, he did things like pay "ticket-time" to employees..which means you get the time on the billing sheet not the time you actually worked. He also started an "insurance company" to insure his own moves..meaning that he pocketed the additional insurance money. The rationale here was that if the claim was to big..he would dissolve the insurance company.
If there were a 10 year audit of this guy by the IRS..he would have been in some serious trouble.
Most people aren't wealthy for much of the same reason poor people aren't middle class.
They just don't know how.
Simple as that.
And who is responsible for that? Evil rich people? No. They are responsible for their own fortune.... everyone is.
I'm not wealthy because I waste too much time here.
True story.
It's wrong for me to use my head and think what I want to think? Thinking for yourself is not exactly an excuse. I'm just saying, for example, some scientists come to a desired conclusion based on how they interpret certain statistics. Other scientists using the same criteria reach an entirely different conclusion - "global warming" being one hotly contested issue. Polls are very much designed to reach a desired conclusion by the way questions are constructed and to whom the questions are asked. Eighty percent of the people think Obama is a candidate for Sainthood - 80% thinks he's Satan reincarnate. All depends on who's asking what to whomever.
Why shouldn't I research, read, or whatever and come to my own conclusions, i.e., think for myself what I believe is closer to the truth.
That's just plain old qualitative thinking. Of course we should objectively consider the accuracy of data, but to just dismiss research out of hand really is just an excuse to hang on to one's own biases. Read some books about money and wealth attainment like 'The Millionaire Next Door' or something and tell us what problems you have with their methods and/or if there is reason to believe their findings are grossly inaccurate.
Most people aren't wealthy for much of the same reason poor people aren't middle class.
They just don't know how.
Simple as that.
And who is responsible for that? Evil rich people? No. They are responsible for their own fortune.... everyone is.
I agree with this about 90%.
Not everyone has the same opportunities afforded them. If you happen to be born into a financially stable, or even wealthy family, you have an advantage of maybe having a business being left to you at some point, or even something as simple as just having close family available to you that would be willing to lend you an amount of money to take a business risk of your own, where the principal received would not only be easy to come by, but also not owed back to a bank where if you were even lucky enough to receive it, you would be enslaved to them with the debt.
I'm a conservative who believes strongly in personal responsibility, but it's naive to think that every single American is born with equal opportunity.
Everyone HAS an opportunity, but the opportunity is not equal among all citizens.
And who is responsible for that? Evil rich people? No. They are responsible for their own fortune.... everyone is.
I agree with this about 90%.
Not everyone has the same opportunities afforded them. If you happen to be born into a financially stable, or even wealthy family, you have an advantage of maybe having a business being left to you at some point, or even something as simple as just having close family available to you that would be willing to lend you an amount of money to take a business risk of your own, where the principal received would not only be easy to come by, but also not owed back to a bank where if you were even lucky enough to receive it, you would be enslaved to them with the debt.
I'm a conservative who believes strongly in personal responsibility, but it's naive to think that every single American is born with equal opportunity.
Everyone HAS an opportunity, but the opportunity is not equal among all citizens.
"Citizens?"
Of the USA, I assume?
There are few countries where citizens have better opportunities to become wealthy.
"Citizens?"
Of the USA, I assume?
There are few countries where citizens have better opportunities to become wealthy.
ACtually Paris Hilton is a truly BAD example of a scion who sits on her ass and does nothing.
She's created more of her personal fortune than she inherited, ya know.
Sure she did it the new old-fashioned American way, too...
She became a media whore and then parleyed her notarity into a host of consumer goods licensed under her name.
Last time I read anything about her she'd more than quadripled her inheritance though these commerical ventures.
The girl might be all the trampish things the media tells us about her, but one thing for sure, too... she's nobody's fool.
I'd like to meet her.
I suspect she's way smarter than she wants the media to believe.
Most people aren't wealthy for much of the same reason poor people aren't middle class.
They just don't know how.
Simple as that.
And who is responsible for that? Evil rich people? No. They are responsible for their own fortune.... everyone is.
"Citizens?"
Of the USA, I assume?
There are few countries where citizens have better opportunities to become wealthy.
and yet the ability to be upwardly mobile has been shrinking rapidly... that shouldn't be ignored... not if each generation wants its kids to do better than the one before. that simply isn't happening right now.
Tell the boy that was born in a trailer park whose parents barely made enough to pay rent and utilities and buy food, that had to bust his ever loving ass in school for a bare minimum of 17 years to achieve a degree that may or may not even get him a job right now, that his opportunity was equal to Bill Gates' kids.
Most people aren't wealthy for much of the same reason poor people aren't middle class.
They just don't know how.
Simple as that.
Well that and a mixture of "Rich People" skirting laws and being pretty ruthless. Take for example the moving company I use to work for..
Initially the owner paid everyone under the table, he didn't claim anything in taxes and functioned completely under the radar for the first few years. Then when he was making to much money..he claimed half the income he was getting. He was real dodgy with employees. On one job I was with..with him as the foreman..the customer gave me a washer/dryer as a tip..while giving him nothing. On the way back to the warehouse he said to me, "You know that washer/dryer is mine..right?". Later, as he became bigger, he hired ex-cons and other people down on their luck. He hired one guy who was a master carpenter..who single handedly built him a warehouse filled with storage bins. He wound up paying the guy like five dollars an hour for his work (off the books of course). As he became bigger, he did things like pay "ticket-time" to employees..which means you get the time on the billing sheet not the time you actually worked. He also started an "insurance company" to insure his own moves..meaning that he pocketed the additional insurance money. The rationale here was that if the claim was to big..he would dissolve the insurance company.
If there were a 10 year audit of this guy by the IRS..he would have been in some serious trouble.
And you want to pretend this guy is what would constitutute normal for most the wealthy?
Even if it was, what's your point? How did the way he ran his business prevent YOU from pursuing wealth?
Most people aren't wealthy for much of the same reason poor people aren't middle class.
They just don't know how.
Simple as that.
And who is responsible for that? Evil rich people? No. They are responsible for their own fortune.... everyone is.
well, you could have a discussion about that, hon. or you can go with the rightwing talking points.
He's small potatoes. There are other stories I know about but can't discuss in open forums.
But he's not unique. Not at all. And a good example.
And me? I do pretty well..I am not "wealthy"...and not really asking to be.
"Citizens?"
Of the USA, I assume?
There are few countries where citizens have better opportunities to become wealthy.
and yet the ability to be upwardly mobile has been shrinking rapidly... that shouldn't be ignored... not if each generation wants its kids to do better than the one before. that simply isn't happening right now.
Tell the boy that was born in a trailer park whose parents barely made enough to pay rent and utilities and buy food, that had to bust his ever loving ass in school for a bare minimum of 17 years to achieve a degree that may or may not even get him a job right now, that his opportunity was equal to Bill Gates' kids.
He may not have had the dollar-for-dollar advantage but that doesn't mean he can't succeed. I can cite two close friends of mine - poor as Job's turkey - he was a laborer in a fender straightening business. They hardly had any clothes and lived in one room in winter because they couldn't afford to heat their whole house (rented, by the way). Three kids - the kids worked their asses off in school and got into college and graduate school on scholarships and Pell Grants. Oldest son went to ODU and is an elementary school principal, the girl graduated UVA Phi Beta Kappa and went to UVA Law School graduating with honors and is now a federal prosecutor, youngest son went to VA Tech and graduated with honors, got his first job as a chemical engineer and the company told him to go back to school and get is Ph.D. in chemistry - they picked up the tab. He has a few patents under his belt and is a successful chemical engineer.
The poor have the same opportunities as the rich in the respect that if they want it bad enough, study hard enough, they can succeed in getting where it is they want to be. Unfortunately, too many people sit on their asses, whine and moan about their status, think they're entitled to everything and expect everybody else to financially provide everything to them.