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Termyn8or -> RE: Being Poor... ( discuss ) (6/8/2008 6:42:07 AM)
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How did I know DA was going to come and say some shit like that ?
Thing is though I agree partly. I would say that 90% if the time people cause their own problems, but what of the other 10% ? But wait, even before we get to that 10% there are some who pay as adults for mistakes they made when they were younger.
Among the examples of such are dropping out of school, catching a felony charge or a BIG one, having kids. Some have done all three.
I was going to ask for clarification about the guy who shovels shit and does well but DA beat me to it. Hats off to the guy, but I don't think he's making 90K. Also what needs to be said is that solicitation of any kind is frowned upon in some places, and you can't just walk up to people's doors and say "Me picka upa you dog poop five dollars". Apparently that is not the case there.
I have also heard of kids going out and making 90 bucks a day shoveling snow or mowing grass. If you can drive, have a truck and ladder you got the world by the balls, if nothing else you can clean gutters.
Several years ago I was asked by three girls, I mean like 12-13 years old, what they could do to make some money. They were cousins who were practically inseperable for a time and they were at the one Parents' house and so was I. I told them to hoof it around to every local business and offer to distrubute flyers, you know on people's doorknobs. Go everywhere except bars. Actually forget the fast food places as well, but everywhere else. I told them that first time out, just get the accounts and I would fire up the laser printer for them. Later they can buy their own paper and get me a toner cartridge, but for now it would be a leg up. After that it would just be the cost of doing business, like the scooper and rubber gloves for the shit shoveler.
Then there's the can kid. Owns a house and a nice truck. Has a job yes, but doesn't have alot in the way of skills so he doesn't make all that much. He augments his income with the cans, and he has turned it into a business. Goes around to the local bars and everything.
So I do agree with DA to that extent, as long as one is able bodied there is something out there to do. Which brings us to the rest, that 10%.
Able bodied means alot more than just to be able to walk and talk. It means that you can get yourself to work. It means you can find someone you trust to watch the kids. It means being able to actually get the job in a market like this.
In the old days, Ford would teach you the skills needed to work on the line, and paid unprecedented wages. The work was hard, some people died trying, literally. But those who made it through lived a pretty good life, they were making it, no matter if they had dropped out of school or had other problems. As long as you could do it you had a job.
Well those days are over. We moved to a service based economy and those opportunities of yore are all but gone. It used to be that if you were willing to work you could find something, but things have changed.
Now one needs skills to do well. Sure you could do something, but if you want to make ends meet you need something lucrative. In today's economy if you are not taking home twenty bucks an hour you are poor. That is different than living in poverty. Poverty is like in Bangladesh etc. Being poor here is a different story. My opinion of being poor is being unable to provide for your own retirement. You just can't do much making thirty grand a year. Yes you can get a house and a car, yes you can have a TV and internet, but when you retire you are going to be dependent on a social security check that might not be forthcoming.
Saving your money is worth shit unless you do it in foreign currency, not everyone has the means to do that.
So by my standards there are alot more poor people in this country than one would think. It's not that they are living in poverty, but one day they probably will.
The other 10% includes alot of things. Many things people don't realize. Get T boned in your car and do a year in a hospital. That'll squash those annual gambling junkets. Get your house taken by eminent domain when you have little or no equity in it. Have a few thou in the bank and have the transmission go in your car. Or your car simply gets stolen and not recovered, your only car.
That other 10% counts, and must be considered before becoming judgemental. The examples I have given are only the tip of the iceberg, there is alot more. Go blind. Catch cancer. Try that.
But that notwithstanding, circumstances. Remember the movie Other People's Money ? Well I have an increasing share of a shrinking market. It is coming to me and I hope I have the wherewithall to survive it. If not, been nice knowing you.
If you are reading this you have survived so far. So far so good. But don't count on things lasting forever. They don't. Strife can come to anyone, and I will say that 90% of the time they brought it on themselves, but the way this economy is, that figure may need to be revised.
T
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