Shit life syndrome.

[Oeshon]

People's ability the learn is a product of their genes and their experience.

Prove me wrong or GTFO!

I don't need to. Believe what you want to believe and stay a peasant. It doesn't bother me.

 

[Phlog]

I don't need to. Believe what you want to believe and stay a peasant. It doesn't bother me.

 

[bobgeese]

So why is the number of people you suggest are unwilling to help themselves increasing?

Perhaps it's to do with the amount of help they get..

Laziness, bad parenting, stupidity, ease of life.


It’s a lot easier to be a lazy POS who just exists, than to be a productive human being.

 

[THEfightsAREfixed]

the reality is people are not happy, and its not a result of material wealth is about spiritual wealth, thats why you have all these angry depressed old dudes on this site who have money but still hate the world because their life has no inherit meaning outside empty hedonism, the pop culture in the US is sick and disgusting

 

[HunterSdVa29]

as David Cross once said, we're pretty much the only place that has malnourished, obese people

think about that

 

[General_Speckz]

1. Set a goal
2. Wake up everyday and take consistent action towards that goal
3. Stop taking action or inaction that works against said goal

There is your blueprint. Now go and apply it.

Poor people are not doing those steps, at least not on a consistent basis over time. Success isn't a diet that you start and then stop. You have got to be consistent and work at it long term. It's not a new years resolution. Everyone has a different goal and definition of wealth/success, so you need to define your goals and then figure out what you need to do to achieve those goals, then go and do that.

Again, I'm not saying everyone is going to be rich, but if you follow the above, you won't be poor.

There are a lot of other healthy habits you should adopt, but this is square 1 for peasants.

You're right, but the amount of positions available, and the saturation of that job market, and other statistical variables determines a lot of how you can go about achieving whatever goal it is you want.

Take an example: Only 2% of NCAA college athletes make it to the pros (this is actually true.) Now, let's say for argument only 50% of them are actually vying to be pro. That means that 96% of college athletes that want to get to the pros are met with disappointment. They're working their butts off. They made it to college sports, they've been through the gauntlet - forging themselves through fire. But, they fail.

Now, I know you're going to naturally think, "Well, that's a field that has high turnover, so that's why they failed."

And.... You would be exactly right!

Now, look at the tech sector. Everyone wants to be in tech. Everyone wants to get paid gobs of money in tech. The market is saturated and highly competitive. But, do the people in tech realize they should have the same expectations as a college athlete? I highly doubt it.

People's ability the learn is a product of their genes and their experience.

Prove me wrong or GTFO!

Free will discussions are tricky. It's like telling a child there's no Santa Claus times a million.

 

[Alphaboy]

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.

There are indeed people who make dumb purchases and have only themselves to blame but that is not always the case.

Here's what I meant by Being poor is expensive.

- If you do not have health coverage and you get injured, or something that leads to serious medical bills, you're fucked...

- Need a car for transportation so you can "lift yourself by your bootstrap and work" you have the option of an inexpensive clunker that'll be a money drain or buy something reliable and expensive and subsequently be accused of living beyond your means.

- Wanna go to college so that you can bootstrap it and get a good job? Be prepared to take out loans. The poorer you are the disproportionately more loans will cost you.

So many more instances of catch-22 situations among the impoverished, but you get the idea.

 

[Jim Cozad Jr.]

Stopped reading at "but abandoning Brexit could save us"...and things have never been better in the U.S., just sounds like whining to me...

 

[faustian]

Man if you pray and send me money God will lend you riches.

That's not really the point. Sometimes you just need to know that there is something greater than all of this, something that can give guidance and meaning even in our darkest hour

Abraham Lincoln:

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

Viktor Frankl:

“At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal's behavior is embedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition to this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development inasmuch as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people tell him to do (totalitarianism).”

"Then I spoke of the many opportunities of giving life a meaning. I told my comrades (who lay motionless, although occasionally a sigh could be heard) that human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. I asked the poor creatures who listened to me attentively in the darkness of the hut to face up to the seriousness of our position. They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning. I said that someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours - a friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God - and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find us suffering proudly - not miserably - knowing how to die."

“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."

 

[Mike]

The mindset of poverty reminds me a lot of the symptoms of depression. There are opportunities, but people who have always been poor are so used to believing things won't work out for them that they can't muster the energy to try. Like a negative feedback loop. Personal growth and reinventing yourself takes a lot of energy as well.

In psychology, what prompts someone to do something again is a reward. If you go to a venue and have fun, you're likely to go to that same venue again. With economic progress, it usually takes years of work before a single reward is achieved. For people that are already at the end of their rope in terms of energy, immediate rewards are more tempting.

Well there's substantial overlap there. Getting beaten down every time you make an attempt to better your circumstances is depressing. I've met a lot of low income people that are just checked out and have completely given up on themselves.

 

[Phlog]

Stopped reading at "but abandoning Brexit could save us"...and things have never been better in the U.S., just sounds like whining to me...

Well considering the cost to our economy by the end of the year is predicted to eclipse the cost of our contributions to the EU since we joined that seems likely. Whatever though.

Have you heard of the rat park experiment?

 

[Mike]

There are indeed people who make dumb purchases and have only themselves to blame but that is not always the case.

Here's what I meant by Being poor is expensive.

- If you do not have health coverage and you get injured, or something that leads to serious medical bills, you're fucked...

- Need a car for transportation so you can "lift yourself by your bootstrap and work" you have the option of an inexpensive clunker that'll be a money drain or buy something reliable and expensive and subsequently be accused of living beyond your means.

- Wanna go to college so that you can bootstrap it and get a good job? Be prepared to take out loans. The poorer you are the disproportionately more loans will cost you.

So many more instances of catch-22 situations among the impoverished, but you get the idea.

People that haven't lived paycheck to paycheck don't understand what that's like. And that many people aren't in that situation because they blow all their money on stupid shit, but because they barely earn more than their expenses. Go to school, get a better car to commute further to better jobs etc, with what money?

As soon as you scrape a couple hundred bucks together your car breaks down or someone gets sick or hurt, or you get laid off or your hours cut.

Constantly working down debt and putting out fires is exhausting and slowly wears people out.

 

[Simian Raticus]

the reality is people are not happy, and its not a result of material wealth is about spiritual wealth, thats why you have all these angry depressed old dudes on this site who have money but still hate the world because their life has no inherit meaning outside empty hedonism, the pop culture in the US is sick and disgusting

The assumptions we have about what makes a good life are steeped in consumerism and denial of death.

People will bring up things like the excess of material comforts, and increasing lifespans as proof that things are amazing without questioning their premises for a single second.

Rampant obesity and rising suicide rates don't see to be an obvious enough clue that our thinking may be flawed.

 

[Mike]

Another crappy thing is now that all these warehouses and manufacturing plants are popping up paying $15 to $20 an hour, landlords are taking notice and jacking up rent prices all over the city.

It sucks for me, but I bet it really sucks for the fast food and retail workers that make roughly half of what I make, and many are part time.

<puh-lease75>

 

[TeTe]

Yeah, the cure is a more equal society: a few less people at the top = a lot less people at the bottom. Higher taxes, stronger institutions and more opportunities for the vast majority.

Unfortunately, it's a really hard message to sell during elections.

You had me at higher taxes. I don't think you need to steal from the fruits of people's labor even more than you alreary are in order appropriate government spending to benefit the average person.

Unless you are talking about just taxing the wealthy more. Which would be a common talking point.

 

[General_Speckz]

That's not really the point. Sometimes you just need to know that there is something greater than all of this, something that can give guidance and meaning even in our darkest hour

Abraham Lincoln:

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

Viktor Frankl:

“At the beginning of human history, man lost some of the basic animal instincts in which an animal's behavior is embedded and by which it is secured. Such security, like paradise, is closed to man forever; man has to make choices. In addition to this, however, man has suffered another loss in his more recent development inasmuch as the traditions which buttressed his behavior are now rapidly diminishing. No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people tell him to do (totalitarianism).”

"Then I spoke of the many opportunities of giving life a meaning. I told my comrades (who lay motionless, although occasionally a sigh could be heard) that human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. I asked the poor creatures who listened to me attentively in the darkness of the hut to face up to the seriousness of our position. They must not lose hope but should keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning. I said that someone looks down on each of us in difficult hours - a friend, a wife, somebody alive or dead, or a God - and he would not expect us to disappoint him. He would hope to find us suffering proudly - not miserably - knowing how to die."

“For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."

 

[Vergilius]

You had me at higher taxes. I don't think you need to steal from the fruits of people's labor even more than you alreary are in order appropriate government spending to benefit the average person.

Unless you are talking about just taxing the wealthy more. Which would be a common talking point.

Staggered tax rate: the more you make, the more you pay.

As we say in my country: "the wider shoulders should carry the greater burdens".

 

[MoparOrNoCar]

Yeah this isn't a country to be poor AND dumb in that's for sure. Damn near everything is designed to have predatory triggers in the terms, and nobody reads anything.I remember when I worked at verizon people would call in with phone bills in the thousands because they went over minutes or data or text. And they always had no concept of what there plan did or didn't cover.

But I didn't know that! Ok... Well that's why you read paperwork? Well now you know and you owe us 2 grand. But why would the overage rates be that high! Because they know stupid people like you won't read shit and will rack up a 2k phone bill. It's like talking to children. Yes... some things are designed to exploit you.

I remember As a small child I had to explain to my mother why renting to own a couch was stupid and we should just sit on the floor for two months and OWN a couch. Unfortunately some people are hopelessly dumb with money. And inexplicably think everyone is their friend.

Yep and the thing is that you can still get by without reading all the fine print because the phone companies make it very clear whether you have unlimited data or not. What may be in fine print is how much you'll be charged if you go over that data. A smart person would just never go over the data and never have to deal with the consequences. A dumb person will risk it. Kind of like when you see a poor looking guy in a piece of shit 95 Cavalier in the carpool lane without a passenger. You don't even need to wonder why they're in a 95 Cavalier because obviously they make poor decisions.

You're absolutely right about the couch and it applies to everything. No one is able to wait to be able to afford what they want anymore. They feel the need to get it and they put it on credit and then deal with the sky high bills later on. For instance I drove my old Mopar as a daily driver for years. Never had a car payment, had cheap insurance and just fixed whatever broke...which probably cost me 5% of what my friends were paying monthly for their newer cars.

Driving that car allowed me to buy a house when the market crashed even though I was only making $10/hr. I had saved up a bunch of money from never having a car payment and I had zero debt. All my friends expect one had nice/newer cars. I told them all along to quit buying new cars and throwing your money away on the depreciation. Me and the one other friend with the shitty car both bought houses at the same time and the value on them has doubled. My other friends had their nice cars but no house. Fast forward 10 years and they are either still renting or they had to buy a house at the current values so they have zero equity and double the payment compared to me and the other guy. Some people just refuse to live uncomfortably for any period of time to get ahead and it can wind up costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars in the end.

 

[Killer Whale]

There are those who are influenced and fall into there environment and there are those who are motivated to never live like that and get the f#ck out.

 

[Steve-French]

Every one of us is statistically more likely to become homeless than wealthy. And by wealthy I don't mean comfortable with a 6 figure income and a 401k. I mean real, lasting, generational wealth.

What a load of shit. Things like a job, running water, indoor plumbing, heat, electricity, food, air conditioning, video games, internet, washer, dryer, a wardrobe, furniture, a car, a bed and television are achievable while still being under the poverty line. This is all perspective.