If You Are Over 30 And You Are Poor

There's probably a good reason for that, assuming you live in a place in which you have opportunity.

What are your thoughts on this attitude?

 

Ive had a government job for the last 4 years, a job that only really exists becuase in government no single person can make a decision


So I get paid too much for not really doing anything for a job that really should not be necessary.

University was a waste of time, it was only the little bit of paper saying I went that was required, even though i nevet actually had to provide proof

And i only really got a foot in thanks to a rug muncher I used to go speeding/clubbing with 20 years ago

Its not about working hard or being.smart, or even where you are from, its about kissing ass, who you know and telling people what they want to hear, even if it doesnt really make sense

 

when you have a large percentage of people, a majority of your population, or close to it, who can be called poor, you have something wrong besides the people themselves.
you have a government and a society that is not earning ITS keep.
that's what austerity is. government refusing to earn its keep.
i don't consider myself poor nor rich. i have a kind of retirement that pays my rent, groceries, and computer, and i don't feel like i really need much else.
by someone else's standards, well my retirement is the same amount they pay people on ssi. i rent a room in a house of people who share at least one of my interests.
that's the only way i can afford to set a little aside.
i have the utmost respect for people who get by on as little as they can, to avoid doing violence to their conscience.
far more then i have for those who would criticize them for doing so.

 

I guess it depends on what you define as "poor." I don't make much money, but am still able to support myself as a childless, single man without assistance from the government or my family. I simply budget my money wisely and conserve when needed. I never even had a credit card up until about a year ago.

I guess some people just don't care much about society's ideal of "success." I know I don't, and I really shit on that whole notion of "making it" in these modern times. It's a losing battle.

I also know some people aren't really interested in spending exorbitant amounts of money on a dumbed-down education simply to earn a piece of paper called a degree. I am one of those people. When so many people have college degrees, it makes them worth less in my opinion. It seems like every other moron is attending college these days, often on the dole of the taxpayer (usually because they're a "minority" with a barely-passing average coming out of high school). College is not what it used to be. These days, it's simply the first step you take in attaining a career, which I have not really had much interest in, though have reconsidered simply as a way to make more money to afford a lifestyle that revolves around my health and achieving my own personal goals as an individual. I just don't really want to spend the money to go back to school, and I don't really like accepting government handouts, which is basically money that was stolen from those who rightfully earned that money. I also find college to be a bore, which is one of the primary reasons I dropped out. Colleges are nothing more than institutions of PC brainwashing. The amount it costs to go to college these days is absurd, and for what reason? So they can turn these colleges into cool hangout spots, equip with fancy cafes and restaurants that serve shitty food?

In my opinion college is not about learning. I do not associate college with enlightenment.... at all. The only real learning is the learning a person does on their own. College does not promote critical and free thought. It promotes reading from a textbook and repeating what you were told, which may or may not be true. I guess in areas pertaining to math and science (as well as the various trades people go to community college for) this might not apply as much, but it does in almost every other area (notably the humanities and political science).

Some people simply chose to live modestly while making less money. It is sort of a compromise for maintaining some level of autonomy and individuality, in my opinion.

 

that was true untill i quit my job and started my own business. when your working for yourself its all about hard work, knowing the right info, and of course, kissing ass!

 

I thought one of the benefits of working for yourself is NOT having to kiss anybody's ass.

 

Indeed there's a good reason, I'm hard of hearing and crippled by disease! Some are physical, some are mental, and all this makes it very difficult to get and KEEP a job.

Your view on this is very ableist and classist to me, not to say downright ignorant. You can stick this attitude right up where I think (yes, there).

 

Having, as a goal in life, "not having to kiss anybody's ass", is somewhat unrealistic, and also revealing, inasmuch as it relates to your personality.

My own son, one of them, has his own business, consulting, installing, and repairing computers and computer systems. He got into it gradually, because of his nature. He's a gearhead and what's called a "kinesthetic" learner, or "hands-on" type of guy. He just picks things up quickly, related to computers. But he isn't a natural teacher. He doesn't have much, if any, patience for people less intelligent than himself, unless said person has boobs and is young and attractive. So, in addition to being a clever and competent IT specialist, he also seems to accumulate woman problems. He gives in too easily, and gets ensnared in relationships. He only recently went through a divorce from his first marriage, after only a couple of years. She was unfaithful, probably due to the amount of time he was spending at work, instead of with her.

So, I hear him frequently expressing frustration with his clients. And in addition to this reality, there is the fact that many of his biggest clients treat him like a dirty washrag, nagging and cajoling him for charging for upgrades, or more than "so-and-so" charges, etc. Still, he's barraged with work, which ought to be a good thing, but his few employees are also a great frustration to him. According to him, they lean on him too frequently for guidance. He wants them to become more independent, so that his time isn't taken up babysitting them through setting up an email client, or other such basics. He recently told me that he'd like to just fire everyone, close up shop and just "get a job", but the money is too good to do it, I guess, or he's got too much sympathy for his lazy, thieving employees.

But anyway,,basically, when you're in business, if you're in competition with others, for the same customers, you've got to develop some "diplomatic skills", or the ability to take some flack at times from the people that pay you. He makes a good living, but with that frustration, he feels as if sometimes it's just not worth it, doing 60 hour weeks and 16 hour days to keep his business afloat.

So, in conclusion, it's one thing to have personal integrity, but in dealing with others, we get down into the pig trough frequently because 1)"there are dicks out there", and 2)lack of patience for people who are dicks, chicks, or dumb as a stick.

 

High-horse a little? sheesh

I'm sure there's a good reason for this too

http://www.naturalnews.com/038933_college_graduates_food_stamps_unemployment.html#ixzz3JmpkUADv

"A recent report compiled by the education resource group OnlineColleges.net found that more than 300,000 Americans with either Master's degrees or Ph.D.s were receiving food stamps in 2010 -- and many more are likely on some form of government assistance today as economic conditions since that time have only continued to worsen."

"According to the latest government data, more than 5,000 people working right now as custodians have Ph.D.s they are not using, and another more than 100,000 people with at least a bachelor's degree currently work in some sort of custodial position. A whopping 80,000-or-so people with at least a bachelor's degree also currently work as attendants at amusement parks and other recreational facilities, while nearly 320,000 college graduates currently work as servers at restaurants and cafes."

 

Fucking excellent post!

As an aside, It seems like a lot of people who believe it's absolutely necessary to go to college also believe that you need to have kids, drive a certain kind of car, live in a certain kind of house, etc. None of that shit is relevant. The power structure promotes this decadent, materialistic culture because it makes people want to be good producer/consumers so they can have the same tacky shit everyone else does.

 

We live in a world where capital and, to a lesser degree, labour are becoming increasingly mobile. This is resulting in a a flattening in price of labour - wages in the developing world are increasing and wages for unskilled and semi-skilled labour are stagnaning or shrinking. People who support themselves by selling their labour, with little in the way of productive skills or talents, are in for a rough near future. And frankly, most don't have anyone to blame but themselves.

 

We live in a world where many positions will be automated in 50 years. One out of every 15 jobs in america in in the transportation industry. And in my children s generation, there will no longer be a need for truck drivers. This is true of cashiers, travel agents.

This has always happened. The printing press put hand transcribers out of work, and generally societies handle these by finding new opportunities. But automation is happening so swiftly now, and there is so little reinvestment in infrastructure, that it may be difficult for society to compensate, and we may be in for a more Hunger Game's type of future.

 

Say's the guy on the military tit...

 

I feel ya. I have various types of mental illness that make it very difficult for me to find employment, and even more difficult for me to maintain employment. Not to mention, I have drug charges and theft charges on my record, as well as a very extensive, varied, and inconsistent employment record, including 50+ different employers, which takes us back to my comment about maintaining employment. lol

 

Maybe I could apply what is said in the OP on myself, as I don't care about getting rich either. But I also have a good friend that is trying to 'make it' (not getting rich, just build up a career and be able to afford a house etc.), he's working hard and putting in a lot of time and effort. Then his company fucked up on an assignment and they had to let people go, including him. Then he had to get a crappy job that paid less in order to finish his school and pay off his mortgage. After 2 years he has to sell his (well the bank's really) house because he can't pay off the mortgage. He's still busy 6 days of the week with his school and crappy job. It appears generally we have both the same amount of money left monthly.
So no, I don't think there is always good reason for people's lack of financial succes. I actually do consider myself financial succesful by the way, as I always have enough to pay for my expenses

 

I applaud your son for owning his business and working so hard but....as someone who owns a business....his problem isn't his employees. The problem is him. Having employees "lean on" you is a part of leadership. If he feels like they don't know what they are doing....it's because they aren't trained well enough or they aren't smart enough. That means he hasn't trained them well enough or he hired the wrong people and needs to make some changes. His work force is a direct reflection of his leadership and decision making. If he doesn't like what he sees....he's the one who needs to change. The sooner he realizes that, the better....because there is no way around it.

 

I'll go against the popular opinion and admit that I learned a lot in college. My undergraduate degree provided me with a broad knowledge base and cultivated some skills that probably would have gone unaddressed, had I not attended university. I went to a fairly conservative school, and that was the mindset of the very wealthy student body. My education lacked a lot of the politically correct stuff that everyone talks about. I was educated alongside a lot of entitled rich kids, and that alone made me learn a lot about the world and how the other half lives. I wasn't really in school to "get a job."

Then again, I don't think school is for everyone. Some people just aren't going to benefit from higher education, especially when they are so young and aren't able to take it seriously. That's the real tragedy of American education. Funneling all of these immature high school graduates into a system that they don't really understand and aren't prepared for. That ends with a lot of debt and no useful skills gained.

My graduate degree is more career-focused, more directly related to the type of field I want to work in. It's hard to "live outside of the system", if you don't have a decent salary. Money buys freedom from a lot of the bureaucratic bullying that the poor have to endure. I don't need to be rich, but I want enough money to be left to myself. It also buys you more opportunities to self-educate. It was hard for me to become more enlightened when I was working 80 hours a week at shitty jobs to make ends meet.

 

I guess that's all true, if you really want to spend your life in a shit job that doesn't need to be done and that you're only enthusiastic about because you don't really do it anyway.

 

Same here. Would not wanna miss the insights and knowledge I gained there.

Me neither... although I guess I was supposed to as I chose solid job/career focussed educations (multimedia design/history teacher etc.).

 

Shit happens.

Getting canned after you've been with a company for 27 years happens.

Stock Market crashes happen.

Illness and Disabilities happen.

You can make alot of money here in the land of opportunity but you can also lose it in an instant.