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FirmhandKY -> RE: Escape From America: The Strange & Scary Billionaires Behind The Libertarian-Inspired Sea Castles (6/8/2010 2:27:36 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl
If being wealthy or being poor in the US was a matter of choice, there would be a lot more wealthy people. Nobody wants to work for minimum wage.
For many years, a college degree was the perfect solution. Get educated and start a good paying career after graduation. Now many US college graduates are working minimum wage jobs and having their meager wages garnished because they are in default on their student loans. They have no experience, there are too few jobs, and too much competition.
Many US college graduates end up in a worse situation than they were in before they went to college (I keep saying US citizens because for many in other countries, student loans are a non issue).
There are business owners who have gotten rich by paying their workers minimum wage and refusing benefits, hiring illegal immigrants, or having products manufactured oversees where they can pay workers less than minimum wage and don't have to pay health insurance premiums.
There are the lucky few who win the lottery or have made millions on the stock market. There are ways to get rich, but very few ways that don't involve risk or exploiting others.
It's far easier to keep wealth than it is to gain it.
Not liking those who make money by taking advantage of others is good because that dislike can fuel ambition to take action and change things.
It would be wonderful if the working poor could afford to take time off their minimum wage jobs to rally in Washington to fight for stiffer penalties for companies who hire illegal immigrants, secure our borders, stop H1 Visas until there are enough living wage jobs for US citizens, and fight for all US tax payer money to be spent in US, not on wars in other countries. Emails are much easier to ignore than live protests. Unfortunately, it takes more money than poor people have to travel there.
Sadly, many people who do have the money are indifferent to situations that don't directly affect them and do nothing. Indifference does not fuel ambition.
I had to put your post into paragraphs to be able to comprehend it better.
I have to agree with LaT on this.
It is just this type of attitude that does keep "poor people" poor.
Getting wealthy, or even just making more than a survival wage is a matter of attitude, opportunity, and luck.
Of the three, attitude is the most important factor.
If one has the right attitude, and uses their time and energy to seek ways to improve themselves (and a college education isn't necessary, although it sometimes can be helpful), then they will be prepared, and understand when "opportunity knocks", and they will pretty much make their own luck.
Guaranteed? Nope. But it is a guarantee that if someone doesn't have a willing attitude, then they will ignore opportunity, and will almost always have "bad luck".
The attitude that will ensure failure is the one that brings out the hatred for people who do better, and succeed.
The attitude that will ensure failure is the one where someone cries about how unfair everything is, and can't see the opportunities that they can take advantage of, because they are too busy complaining.
I'll just give you some examples that I'm familiar with:
I work in a pretty technical field, that involves engineering, politics, and federal regulations. I've trained probably 15 people over the years in how to do the same thing. Or, to be more correct, I've hired at least that many to learn it.
I'm willing to pay them for at least 6 months to learn the skills and information to succeed, without expecting that they will contribute to my bottomline.
Some didn't even have computer skills, which is absolutely required to succeed. I am willing to teach them that, and even provide the computer equipment for them.
What is required to succeed is the attitude and desire to pay close attention, and to learn how to look up, read, and understand the rules, and apply them. It requires the ability to pay attention to details, the ability to think things through, and then apply what they know to a particular situation.
Many of the people I've hired simply decide that its "too hard", or they give up after a week or two, because it's "overwhelming". Some just don't want to learn all the stuff. Some are simply unwilling to learn how to think.
One young woman who did not have a high school diploma, and not a day of college, and no computer experience took on the challenge about 10 years ago. She had a crackhead for a husband, and two children who she ended up raising on her own.
To start, I paid her about $300 a week. Today, still without a high school diploma, or any college, she is working for a Fortune 500 company, doing exactly the same things as I taught her for $45 an hour.
Another example is Treasure.
Treasure has a GED, and a few hours of college, but worked her way up in the Human Resources field by learning on the job, after hours, getting certifications in the field, and in generally applying herself. She supported her entire family over the last two decades doing so, without assistance from her ex.
When we got married, she started learning what I do, in a completely unrelated field. But she had already displayed the right "attitude": failure is simply another lesson on the way to success. Today, even if I were to die, she could continue our business and make at least a 6 figure income.
What these two women didn't do was cry about all the opportunity and education that they were missing to "be successful". They didn't waste their energy feeling resentful for the success of others. What they did do was take stock of their own positions, their own abilities, got their attitude straight, and applied themselves. And made their own luck.
Final example: Me.
I have two college degrees, both in the "soft sciences", in areas that do not apply at all in the field that I've been working on for the last 20 years. (and, btw, I completely paid for my undergraduate degree by working: not a penny from my parents, who were "poor" and unable to help) I further spent over 10 years in the military, also outside of my current field. I became a respected (and well paid) expert in this field, above many people who have dedicated degrees, by learning on my own, by being more committed to understanding it, and in learning how to apply it. Was it easy? Never.
How did I get into it? Simple. I had problems that needed solved, and there wasn't anyone that I could turn to, anyone I could pay that would provide the answers to the questions. I saw an opportunity, and became "that person" for others to turn to, and, as a result, am currently in that "top 5%" income category.
But ... I don't work "on the clock". I work on vacation, I work during the day, I work at night, I work to resolve my clients problems whenever, and where ever they have them. I've saved some companies millions of dollars, and nowadays they rarely ask "How much?", they simply say "Send us your bill". Hell, I mistakenly overcharged one company $10,000, and when I told them, they said they didn't care (an indication that maybe I'm not charging enough for my services).
"Being poor" is simply a temporary condition for people who have the right attitude.
Firm
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