Shit life syndrome.

[Mike]

This. Trust the process. The most difficult things are the most rewarding.

The most entitled the people feel, the most miserable they are.

My only regret is not learning to believe in myself sooner. But to spend your entire life feeling like there are things about yourself you can't ever change, and to finally get to prove yourself wrong?

I'm glad I lived long enough to see that. It makes it feel like my life had some meaning. It's hard to express to people that weren't born with that strange inherent feeling of worthlessness. It can ruin your entire life, if you don't learn how to control something like that.

 

[Phlog]

I've noticed the most judgemental people on this topic saying what poor people should and shouldn't do, didn't grow up poor. Never had to be desperate or hungry or crazy. facing the possibility of losing your entire life because there's no way you can get $250 by Monday.

If you want to pop out kids and refuse to work like a useless asshole, the government will feed and house you. In such excess you can flip some of it for drug money.

If you want to work but don't have the skills or education to find a good job, you are probably fucked. You won't qualify for free food, medical, or education if you work a full time job. Even though we now live in a nation where tens of millions of jobs are either minimum wage or a dollar two above.

Jobs that our government subsidizes corporate America to create. Because, ostensibly, they are helping the country by creating these jobs. But nobody can afford to live working at one of these jobs. And people have adopted the talking point that nobody is SUPPOSED to live on these jobs. If you are in that situation you're just a loser that isn't trying.

But these jobs are such a large portion of the unskilled labor market, and there are so many unskilled laborers, by default quite obviously people will end up depending on these jobs.

Even though many of these jobs are part time, they will all want you to have open availability so you can work 20 to 30 hours a week. They will not want to work around a school schedule. If you are living alone, you are going to need 2 of these jobs to survive. It will already be a challenge making two of these shit jobs coordinate schedules so you can show up at both.

You are not going to have time to go to school. Or the money or most likely the energy. Hey let's get roommates so we can work one job and go to school full time. Ok now you roll random Chaos Dice for everything you try to do. Because other crazy poor people have invaded your life.

What's that you say, why crazy? Well Jim, mental illness is rampant and often untreated in the poor. Combo of the stigma against seeking care, lack of access to insurance, and lack of education. No, poor people often can't afford mental or physical health care. Booze and drugs are relatively cheap though.

Solid.

When people say someone should get a better job to afford to live, really they're saying someone else should do that job and live in poverty.

 

[Oeshon]

Struggle is real in the USA.

Student loans and low paying jobs.

Having said that, it’s your fault if you borrowed money and got a degree no one cares about.

low paying jobs? try getting a job in the philippines. i've got some employees there on just $350 a month. Hell, my fucking Indian VA makes $240 a month.

also there is no reason to take a loan unless you plan to study something useful to make the money back with like engineering, medicine etc. If you get a student loan and study a useless degree, thats called being a moron.

there is so much opportunity to make money in the US. it just requires effort and lifestyle/habit changes.

you cant live downtown NY and work at a coffee shop.

 

[Mike]

honestly, the biggest steps to happiness are actually planning and taking steps to achieve what you want.

if you set a goal and wake up everyday and take action towards that goal, you will get to where you want to be. even if you dont, you will at least be in a much better position 1 year from now.

the worst kind of people are the ones that complain all the time but never do anything about it

"im fat", but im gonna keep eating bad food and not exercising

"im poor" but im gonna waste my money instead of saving it, and not work towards developing any skills/value to make more money

"im sad" but im not going to set any goal to work towards what makes me happy

i always used to think it was dumb that people made their beds in the morning. Now I see how vital of a life habit it is as it teaches you to start your day by completing a task.

It took me so long to figure this out. Just wanted to focus on how it wasn't fair. And it wasn't, shit sucked. But it doesn't matter. Set a goal and make minor progress every day.

As long as you don't pussy out you literally have to win eventually. Incremental improvement is the goat. You just can't quit.

 

[Takes_Two_To_Tango]

honestly, the biggest steps to happiness are actually planning and taking steps to achieve what you want.

if you set a goal and wake up everyday and take action towards that goal, you will get to where you want to be. even if you dont, you will at least be in a much better position 1 year from now.

the worst kind of people are the ones that complain all the time but never do anything about it

"im fat", but im gonna keep eating bad food and not exercising

"im poor" but im gonna waste my money instead of saving it, and not work towards developing any skills/value to make more money

"im sad" but im not going to set any goal to work towards what makes me happy

i always used to think it was dumb that people made their beds in the morning. Now I see how vital of a life habit it is as it teaches you to start your day by completing a task.

Are you referring to Jordan Peterson?

 

[Mike]

Solid.

When people say someone should get a better job to afford to live, really they're saying someone else should do that job and live in poverty.

Precisely and I always try to call that out. Individuals can excel. It's hard to make entire societies excel and we certainly aren't driving that. If someone HAS to end up working these jobs, you should be able to live on them. And I mean live frugally.

But you can't and the main offender is ridiculous rent prices and the price of healthcare.

 

[PaleMoonlight]

low paying jobs? try getting a job in the philippines. i've got some employees there on just $350 a month. Hell, my fucking Indian VA makes $240 a month.

also there is no reason to take a loan unless you plan to study something useful to make the money back with like engineering, medicine etc. If you get a student loan and study a useless degree, thats called being a moron.

there is so much opportunity to make money in the US. it just requires effort and lifestyle/habit changes.

you cant live downtown NY and work at a coffee shop.

sarcasm bruh.

having said that, quality of life is shittier here than 10 years ago. Opportunities are still there though.

 

[Alphaboy]

Yep. I have fulltime staff in the Philippines that make $400 bucks a month. They love that shit too as they can work from home and don't need to commute 2 hours each way in Manilla.

You have to be a complete deadshit to be on minimum wage in a western country. If you just show up to work, work hard, and are trustworthy, most people will find promotions. I had a friend working minimum wage at McDonalds in Austalia. He worked his way up through the company and is now an area manager making 6 figures. He didn't even finish high school.

Also most people take life for granted. Too obsessed with brands and social media and how the 1% live. It is self-inflicted depression and I don't feel bad for these idiots at all.

You know I always give you respect for your success, you start to lose me when you use that to dump on poor people.

Are a lot of people in Western countries lazy fucks? Definitely, you won't get any argument from me. Is every poor person a lazy fuck, not by a long shot.

Economic mobility, while possible is difficult. Most people remain in the socioeconomic class of their parents.

Consider this, the poorer you are the more expensive things are.

 

[Mike]

You know I always give you respect for your success, you start to lose me when you use that to dump on poor people.

Are a lot of people in Western countries lazy fucks? Definitely, you won't get any argument from me. Is every poor person a lazy fuck, not by a long shot.

Economic mobility, while possible is difficult. Most people remain in the socioeconomic class of their parents.

Consider this, the poorer you are the more expensive things are.

I'm guessing the crux of his argument is if it's tough just be exceptional. And mine would be that obviously not everyone will excel, and average or below average people shouldn't be stomped on.

It's not really necessary imo.

 

[Oeshon]

Solid.

When people say someone should get a better job to afford to live, really they're saying someone else should do that job and live in poverty.

Disagree. I'm one of the most judgemental and I grew up poor. My parents were immigrants and my Dad was a small businessman who struggled to get by. I'm not going to complain about it though as this was in Australia, so even poor standard of living in Australia is very good.

My parents ended up being well off enough as my Dad sold his business and they invested in property at the right time. They don't have a lot of money, but they have enough to live a middle class lifestyle in Aus.

The real core issue here is most poor people are idiots and have bad life habits. Its unfortunate if you are not raised right (and I can relate to that in regards to economics as im self taught for success), but in a western country, you have the opportunity to make yourself a success.

Poor people think its just going to happen to them and they dont have to do anything to succeed.

Are you referring to Jordan Peterson?

I don't watch too much of him but if he's saying what I'm saying here, he is right.

People don't understand how much control they have over their own life

 

[Alphaboy]

I'm guessing the crux of his argument is if it's tough just be exceptional. And mine would be that obviously not everyone will excel, and average or below average people shouldn't be stomped on.

It's not really necessary imo.

I agree with both of those statements.

 

[all caps]

You mean to tell me a lifetime of indentured servitude for another man isnt ideal?

 

[Danger Dave]

if you own more than 1 tv in your house you are probably not struggling.

 

[Mike]

This is a really good thread.

I've been doing some statistical simulations lately, and "riding the wave" of a small emerging market is by far the safest way to thwart bad luck. Ofc if/when things do start to go bad you have to be ready/actively searching to ride the next wave. This is similar to stock market concepts, but stocks require quite a bit of starting money to do much of anything with them.

Also, say you're part of a group of contractors, if you self advocate early and often to get a permanent position you desire you are far more likely to get it. This'll work even if you're "unlucky".

Other notable discoveries: higher population naturally means more extremely unlucky and just as extremely lucky people... (though longer lifespans equalizes this effect because it exposes people for more opportunities of good and bad luck.)

Interesting point. I'd say that's exactly how I did it. There's a blue collar labor boom here, bit of an anomaly. The jobs are competing for workers here, the way capitalism is supposed to work.

 

[Mike]

if you own more than 1 tv in your house you are probably not struggling.

Since you can buy a tv for a couple hundred bucks now, I don't think that's a metric for success anymore. I own a $89 smartphone, but I wouldn't say I'm balling out of control.

 

[Oeshon]

You know I always give you respect for your success, you start to lose me when you use that to dump on poor people.

Are a lot of people in Western countries lazy fucks? Definitely, you won't get any argument from me. Is every poor person a lazy fuck, not by a long shot.

Economic mobility, while possible is difficult. Most people remain in the socioeconomic class of their parents.

Consider this, the poorer you are the more expensive things are.

Sorry, no sympathy at all for poor people in the west.

You really summed it up with 'the poorer you are, the more expensive things are'

Guess what? Stop buying shit then.

I worked at a supermarket as a teen. You know how many poor people bought the top brand items of food? Fucking most of them. They would buy the $5 dollar pasta sauce instead of the $1.50 pasta sauce and then cry about how poor they are.

I know people to this day still working at the same supermarket I worked out. Guess what? They all got 85" tvs and blow half their salary on food and booze.

They are not taking any courses in their spare time or starting a part time hustle. They are getting drunk and playing xbox.

Being poor is 90% life habits. I'm not saying you will be rich, but you will 100% not be poor if you just change a few basic life habits.

 

[SalvadorAllende]

My only regret is not learning to believe in myself sooner. But to spend your entire life feeling like there are things about yourself you can't ever change, and to finally get to prove yourself wrong?

I'm glad I lived long enough to see that. It makes it feel like my life had some meaning. It's hard to express to people that weren't born with that strange inherent feeling of worthlessness. It can ruin your entire life, if you don't learn how to control something like that.

I think that happens to a lot of people but they just mask it. Good to read that you were able to turn things around.

 

[Oeshon]

being poor in the US is a choice.

#truthfact

 

[MoparOrNoCar]

Haha I work graveyard here because it has the highest shift differential. So I'm always at walmart buying shit at 4am




Got to go where the money is. I hate the myth that the poor are poor because we're lazy. I do whatever god awful work I have to do at whatever horrible hour, and I work like an absolute madman. But you can run as fast as you want on a hamster wheel.

You're not going anywhere.

Some people are poor because they're dumb and stubborn. I have a couple cousins like this. You can give them all the advice in the world but they're going to spend the rest of their lives working at shit jobs because they refuse to use advice from smarter people.

Here's some cliffs on my cousins situation.

Makes $15/hr in CA
My mom sets her up with an online profile to apply for government jobs.
She's so picky she doesn't apply to any of them.
Quits looking because they start at $1 less than what she's making. Even though in 2 years she will be at $5/hr more.
My friend has a spot at his agency in the mail room, she doesn't apply because it's too far. 25min away.
She pays a guy $250 to set up her resume better when it was fine the way it was.
Mom sets her up to apply at her old agency, she doesn't because she's "too busy".
Cousin has some health issues and now a $3k doc bill that would have been $0 if she had insurance.
Cousin takes out a loan to pay doc bill. Doesn't read loan. Interest rate is sky fucking high.
Cousin has already paid $2k but the principal on the loan has only gone down a couple hundred bucks.
Cousin applies to one job and gets hired. It's 2 HOURS away.
She looks at apartments in that area. It's a ski resort town. Prices are almost as high as San Francisco.
So she decides to commute with a car that can only go about 10 miles before it overheats.
Doesn't realize that the road gets closed constantly because of snow.
Quits after going through orientation, pissing them off and making it even more difficult to get hired in the future.

This scenario is just as common as many others. You may not be like this but many poor people dig their own graves through stubbornness and then blame the world for it as if they're this victim that is held down by society. Usually they make stupid decisions, don't consult with smarter people because they're embarrassed and then continue down this cycle of shit jobs, cash advances, terrible loans etc. The shit that's there to trap you. Many times they can avoid this cycle but they don't because they are simply too lazy and come up with any excuse they can to avoid the "work" that is bettering their lives.

 

[Oeshon]

There are some people that do the right thing and get fucked over and those are the people I feel bad for. There are also those that grew up in rough circumstances and have a much harder road to success and that sucks too. There are also those that have disabilities that never got a fair shot at success, and again, I feel for these people. These are all edge cases though

Facts are that the majority of poor people are poor by choice.