A comic that does not belong in humor (Full Version)

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Termyn8or -> A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 7:14:12 AM)

Depicts a couple of rich looking folk and in the first bubble "WE HAVE DOWNSIZED, WE WENT FROM A MILLION DOLLAR HOUSE TO A $400,000 HOUSE" and then the other one says "AND WE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO MOVE".

Now I wonder just where the line is drawn between the haves and that havenots. I think some people thought they were haves, but may be proven wrong in times like this. Blissfully unaware that there are at the very least a thousand people on Earth who could buy and sell Bill Gates with pocket change. Those are the real haves.

Alot of that is old money. It has been said that if you took a self made millionaire, gave all his money to a poor Man, that the millionaire would actually make the money all over again, while the poor Man would lose all the money. Each would be back where they started. When this was the land of opportunity I understood this and would tend to believe it, but nowadays I am not so sure.

T



camille65 -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 7:34:07 AM)

Term I sent you CMail.



UncleNasty -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 7:41:20 AM)

Anyone not receiving "bailout funds" is being downsized in this way.

Uncle Nasty



kittinSol -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 7:44:53 AM)

Would Bill Gates have become so successful had he not had his father's financial backup ? I doubt it very much.

The self-made man is a pretty myth; of course it happens, but the fact is that most very financially successful people come from money themselves. Yet, somehow, people are led to believe that with work and dedication they can all become millionaires. It's the American Dream Lottery: a fallacy colported by flashing shiny golden carrots in the face of the have-nots, so that they bust their collective arses working for the few who have in the hope that they're buying into the dream - even though it doesn't benefit them in the least.

The cynicism I am seeing emerge today is one hell of a beautiful thing: about time people realised what's been really going on.



suhlut -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 8:00:34 AM)

Ya know Term.. reading this REALLY pisses me off!

Wanna know why?
My husband and i bought our house 15 years ago.. on a 20 year mortgage..
So, yes.. thats right..we have FIVE years left of mortgage payments.
Luckily we didnt listen nor agree when they tried talking us into smaller monthly payments by agreeing to a 30 year mortgage instead..

We bought our home..for 20 thousand dollars.. so..not a mansion.. and not over our means.. but instead a fixer upper.. and have put plenty of dollars into it over the past 15 years..

We also scraped and pinched and struggled through our own sets of financial issues.. BUT.. even if it was late.. we have always made our mortgage payments..

15 Years ago.. there was no way of forseeing what is happening now in our country.. perhaps we wouldnt have bought a home.. if we could have known.

What pisses me off bigtime.. is that because of a president that i never voted for.. along with people who were dumb enough to agree to buying houses that were beyond their means.. now we see the country is on the very edge of another ressession, if not depression.

So.. after paying off our home.. for 15 years.. doing what was right.. and making sure our mortgage bills were payed for all these years.. just when we are on the brink of paying it off.. what happens if my husband loses his job because there is no need for his line of work anymore? How is it FAIR.. that we might lose NOW.. what we have been paying for..for 15 fucking years.. all because OTHERS voted for a total moron.. and yet others moved into million dollar houses that they COULDNT afford? Must have been nice..to live in such luxury.. while we have done everything we could to pay for our modest home and not lose it through foreclosure.



housesub4you -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 8:26:41 AM)

"Alot of that is old money. It has been said that if you took a self made millionaire, gave all his money to a poor Man, that the millionaire would actually make the money all over again, while the poor Man would lose all the money."
 
So now you're using old wives tales as truth???  Big deal it's an old saying, it has nothing to do with truth, it's just to support that those who have it, should keep it because no one else but the rich know what to do with wealth.

If you look at the very wealthy, I doubt without having the money handed to them, they would have the common sense to earn a dollar.  I mean just look at all the spoiled brats who have no idea what it means to earn a dollar (hello paris...)

There is another old saying, "you can tell more about a person when they are down then when they are on top"  Now how many people on top are crying for more money because they lost the money people entrusted to them. 

We lost all our millions please give us more, but don't you dare help the people whose money we lost, because only we rich know how to get it back

Yea, what a bunch of crap



Termyn8or -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 9:46:12 AM)

OK, let's get this straight before I have to get the flameproof suit out.

First of all this reads "in reply to" so I'll deal with that first. housesub, I wrote "it's been said" and went on to basically say that it was plausible. Or was it "I tended to believe it". You take the contrast in the havenots, some can walk to another state with $12 in their pocket and in a few years be all set up, house, car and all that. Others can't even make it in their hometown with the help of friends and family. I know and know of each type personally.

Now suhlut, you notice where it says "doesn't belong in humor". I did not write it, I read it so take it easy on the messenger. This was something in my livingroom, and it brought an initial chuckle, but after a few seconds you realize what it means and we had a discussion about it. I thought I would bring it in here.

kit, I can't completely disagree, however Gates' first company was a pretty cheesy little outfit called Traf-o-meter. A traffic counter basically. Bill Gates just bought and stole the right stuff, and got away with it, but who hasn't done anything less than 100% above board while getting to that scale of wealth ? When I was in business I do admit family money was used at first, but there was a cognovant note, and therefore a payback. In fact when the person who actually coughed up the money died it was deducted from the inheritance. I don't really know the situation in the case of Bill Gates. And what of the case of friends and family simply steering business one's way ? I'm sure alot of that happens especially in smaller businesses. Most new businesses fail, and no Man is an island (or Woman [put the flamethrower down and step away from the Terminator] :-)

To all, y'know, about ten years ago or so I might have been set for life, but I blew it. At least I blew it.  Had a great time. I am not whining in the least, no external forces or conditions made my stuff worthless, I spent it. On any scale of wealth, losing half of it is not a good thing.

The more you have the more you lose, the less you have the more it matters.

[pause]

Might have to put that last line in a book somewhere. Perhaps as a component of Murphy's law.

T



domiguy -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 9:57:58 AM)

Then again there are those that were the "investors."  Mortgaged to the hilt holding millions of dollars of real estate.  Interest rates rise and property values tumble...The severity depends on your zip.

So you got $10,000,000 in real estate.  It drops in value by 20% and your mortgage rates increase.  What do you do?

You pull out four hundred thousand to buy your residence "free and clear"...You walk away from your $2,000,000 loss and you fuck up your credit for the next few years.  That might be a better strategy than paying the mortgage rates and waiting for your real estate values to recover.

Your home is paid for...Who needs credit?



Evility -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 12:02:24 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: suhlut
What pisses me off bigtime.. is that because of a president that i never voted for.. along with people who were dumb enough to agree to buying houses that were beyond their means.. now we see the country is on the very edge of another recession, if not depression.


We bought in an area where the homes we wanted were in our budget because the homes we wanted in the area we wanted to buy in were beyond our budget. This whole foreclosure bailout pisses me off to the nth degree. My tax dollars going to house poor.

A co worker has a friend who is a home builder. He sold a house to a lady who asked him not to buy appliances and roll those funds into lowering the price since she had her own appliances so he did ask she requested. Some time later he had to visit the home to perform some minor warranty work and he finds out she is cooking on a gas grill on the patio and using a cooler to store food because she never had any appliances to start with and needed every penny rolled into the price of this home she really could not afford. She didn't even have furniture.

These are the poor souls we are bailing out and I'm mad as hell about it.




hlen5 -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 1:01:57 PM)

There's really two subjects going on here I think. 1- Should we be bailing out people who didn't follow established borrowing rules (don't make your payments more than 30% of your REAL income, pay 20% percent down) or businesses that behaved irresponsibly? 2 - Can someone starting out really become wealthy?

1) I'm pissed as hell I (and all you other taxpayers) have to bail out businesses who made bad decisions one after the other and now come to the government hand outstretched. People who made bad decisions are reaping what they've sown.

Unfortunately those same bad business decisions are tripping up the average person who paid their bills and now find themselves out of a job. Mr/Ms average now can't make their mortgage and the snowball just keeps rolling. 

2). I think it's entirely possible for the average person to become wealthy. If I had known money rules then that I know now, I would be much better off.

Edited to add - I know that some people are in trouble through no fault of their own and I'm not pointing fingers at anyone who has posted.



VanessaChaland -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 3:11:29 PM)

  Umm, can you name more than one?


quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or

Blissfully unaware that there are at the very least a thousand people on Earth who could buy and sell Bill Gates with pocket change. Those are the real haves. 

T



Hippiekinkster -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 3:27:13 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: domiguy

Then again there are those that were the "investors."  Mortgaged to the hilt holding millions of dollars of real estate.  Interest rates rise and property values tumble...The severity depends on your zip.

So you got $10,000,000 in real estate.  It drops in value by 20% and your mortgage rates increase.  What do you do?

You pull out four hundred thousand to buy your residence "free and clear"...You walk away from your $2,000,000 loss and you fuck up your credit for the next few years.  That might be a better strategy than paying the mortgage rates and waiting for your real estate values to recover.

Your home is paid for...Who needs credit?
Actually, I did something similar, except I didn't walk away from houses that had dropped in value from my purchase price. I bought houses that were undervalued to begin with, put a little sweat equity into them, and sold them at market value. I dumped all but two in 2006 because I saw this shit coming. How? I think it was Bernard Baruch who said (prior to the '29 Crash), "When the elevator operator is talking about his stocks, it's time to get out of the market." My corollary was, "When everybody and his mother are selling mortgages, speculating in houses, watching "Flip This House!" on cable, or playing real estate agent, it's time to cash in."
So now my house is paid for in one of the highest income zips in GA, in a country club subdivision where they are buying 300-400K houses and tearing them down (Greedy knows where I live; she's been to my house), and I have a couple rentals left paying my bills.
But I agree, that's one strategy.



DMFParadox -> RE: A comic that does not belong in humor (3/6/2009 4:52:56 PM)

You can become a millionaire in this country starting with nothing. There can be, in fact, the type of person that would always become a millionaire regardless of circumstance. However, it takes a village to make that individual.

Read 'Outliers' by Malcolm Gladwell. It's eye opening. (And if you have kids, never call your kid smart. Never base their self-esteem on a factor like intelligence that they have no direct control over. That's the biggest thing I took from the book.)



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