The tense indicates he is not already wearing it, which makes him a super spreader event.
Thank you Miss Anna for elevating this discussion with some very interesting content.
One of the key foundations of American culture appears to be the choice to play the game of potentially winning big, with the risk of losing badly.
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Yep, we love our big risk, big reward scenarios here. Immigrating to america, manifest destiny and western settlement/oregon trail, gold rushes, investment banking etc. Thatās part of the romanticism of america. āEveryoneā is free to play.
One of the strange things I notice here (probably most places) is that way more people than justified think they will one day be wealthy. IIRC, it is like half of Americans believe they will one day be wealthy. I suppose a good portion of the other half is old enough to realize that aināt gonna happen. It kinda makes me think back to the higher Ed thread @anna_5588 started. We discussed the importance of looking at things in a statistical way.
Perhaps that is why we are okay with potentially winning big, at the risk of losing badly as most think their chances of winning big are better than they are.
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Iād never thought about that, but itās probably got a kernel of truth. I think more people would have decent chances if they stopped spending on stupid things, like my parents and my grandparents did. I honestly believe a lot of it is self-inflicted, though obviously not all as weāve talked about generational poverty before.
Also depends on your definition of wealthy I would guess. Bezos wealthy? Not in a million years. But wealthy as in a decent retirement fund and the ability to stop working? Very possibly
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The desire to appear wealthy and live wealthy leads to shortsighted decisions that reduce the chances of actually becoming wealthy.
I am a VERY harsh, heartless critic of peopleās financial habits and decision making.
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I agree completely. There are no guarantees in life, but the odds are pretty decent for most Americans alive today. The problem is not enough even know that the path is there, let alone how to walk it. This is unsurprising given the widely popular notion that class mobility is a myth, that basic economics favor only the wealthy and thereās no realistic path to prosperity without the aid of Democrats and radical government redistribution policies.
Iām not sure if it will still be considered āwealthyā, but Iām on-track to retire as a millionaire sometime in my mid 50ās after raising a kid that wasnāt mine (alas, no tax breaks for my efforts), losing 40k on my 2nd property when the value tanked during the crash and spending plenty of money foolishly over the years. Iām hoping my 40ās continue to be a time where I can live off of one weekās pay, which Iāve achieved by (mostly) sensible spending and continuous career development over a lifetime. The rest is going to the pile. And probably the new boat now too, I suppose. Thereās a lot of upgrades she could use.
People need to start saving and investing young, make the most out of the good times and stay smart when things are lean. Significant, life-altering class mobility is not inherently out-of-reach for most people. Who knows, I may eat those words if the market tanks and all of my 401k and other investments turn to dust, but that seems unlikely.
I think most Americans who participate in the economy and make generally good decisions will occupy a number of tax brackets and āclassesā throughout their life. Iāve lived (as in completely supported myself, not living with mom and dad) on $9 an hour when I first left home at age 20. I was barely a step above poor, and only because of all of the overtime I worked. I didnāt take a day off for over three months during that time, but I made ends meet.
I got bumped up to $15 an hour in less than 6 months from taking that $9 job to get my foot in the door and left that company as a salaried Business Analyst making much more than $15 an hour a decade later. It is a good thing I didnāt mope around being bitter at my employer for only paying me $9 an hour. I āfought for 15ā instead, and got it without requiring a law be passed that forced my employer to pay it.
I know guys my age whoāve never developed a single marketable skill, and Iām sure youāll hear a different point of view if you ask my buddy Chris. Heāll probably tell you how unfair the economy is and support a law that requires an employer to pay him $X.XX per hour.
Broā¦ Youāve had 23 years since you graduated HS to learn how to code, weld, plumb, build, demolish, operate machinery, you-name-it. Yeah, your bass lines are sounding great, but nobodyās paying you for your music.
Sorry if youāre only qualified to trim weed, play in cover bands or drive an uber. Keep sharing those Bernie Sanders memes and calling everyone who disagrees with your narrow view of the world a racist idiot.
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For what reason would you choose to live in the US other than you have guaranteed protection should the government coming for your ass?
Part of this is you gotta be important enough for that to happen and in the US itās probably easier to become important than most other places (not saying itās easy of definitely going to happen if you work but itās not like a bunch of other class systems).
Second, like trademarks, if you donāt protect freedom then itās going to get taken which leads to the last point and that is people with power tend to want more power and often that ends up with lots of death and we have multiple cases through history where lots means millions not a few thousand
People will argue that in todayās world the western countries have enough protection in their systems to prevent this but change is like an avalanche and suddenly what you had is gone and it looks nothing like what you remembered it fast.
Two years ago people were arguing you didnāt need to protect yourself because the police protect you. Ignoring the timeliness issue, fast forward to today and police are having budgets slashed and are struggling to keep and attract police.x
Something about leading a horse to waterā¦
Wealth and class envy is so pathetic. Look for happiness and contentment in your friends / family bonds, your sense of community, your relationship, caring for animals, attaining health and wellness.
Demoralized cretins look for it in āstuff.ā I used to bang an uber liberal little chicana. Had āclass warfareā tattooed and her ass cheek. Strange bed fellows but i pity her. So angry, resentful and envious. Toxic defeating mentality. Looks at charlatans like olā Bernie for hope. Eggplant level brain activity
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I appreciate the little kiss at the end of this post.
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If Americans cared about freedom, they wouldnāt vote for massively expanding the State in perpetuity.
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I believe they do, but the put greater value on their security (being a free insurance policy for any unfortunate event).
Give me liberty or give me death
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When the State grows, individual freedom decreases. The government requires more resources, it produces nothing and only takes these resources from the private sector. When you cannot make your own decision with X% of your paycheck, you have less individual volition as the State is now making these decisions for you. That is not freedom, that is serfdom.
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Serfs donāt vote.
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Please study those that are successful! Your post shows that you lack a basic understanding at how or what it takes for upward mobility. Greater than 80% of those that are millionaires or greater in this country are first generation and self made. Opportunities abound in this county if you are willing to start at the bottom and work your way to the top. Unfortunately we have an epidemic of you folks in this country that believe they should begin where their parents currently are. The ruling class in this country continues to sell the victimhood narrative and the youngins suck it up with those ridiculous paper straws!
I agree when it comes to specific industries.
However, Iād go as far as to say Iād rather employ women in my industry (at least where I live) due to lots of factors like being less entitled and more conscientious, especially in lower starting positions. The downsides are they need to be micromanaged a little more, I canāt take them to places I normally do to entertain male clients, and of course thereās the factor of unpredictability in the long term due to potential priority shifts like them starting families and having kids.
Itās VERY hard and expensive to replace, say, an account manager. Sheāll get pregnant but still work as hard, but once the kid is born, BOOM! Thatās when priorities change. People normally whine about the pregnancy part, but thatās not the problem IME and Iāve had one stay even after she had a kid but sheās the exception, not the norm. If the employee is worth retaining and will continue to work as normal after that, all the pregnancy benefits, paid leave and temporarily making changes to fill her role on the client side are worth it.
And I can say a similar thing for men who may just leave for a higher paying job and take the clients on his account with him and the turnover rate for men is generally higher.
Shit, in my side business, which is a music school, all my employees are women including the general manager. The only man there is a co-director who basically does nothing but collect money and gives us legitimacy even amongst employees because heās well known and respected in the classical music scene here so we get very good teachers wanting to work for us even for lower wages. Since we earn mostly through group classes for beginners, the turnover rate doesnāt really affect us much.
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They fuck up things like causing skyrocketing property prices too when you have idiots whom have never worked in the private sector running things.
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Agreed. N=1 but mum used to be a star employee and very dedicated to her job. After having us, she started spending office time looking at parenting articles and designing our extracurricular stuff (ie classes, activitiesā¦)
Dad kept on trucking
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So true, the reality is politicians are generally a bunch of losers who never had a real job and couldnāt operate a lemonade stand. Thatās why they promise people other peopleās money to buy votes for a living. It honestly pisses me off when I see great minds and entrepreneurs have to sit around and answer questions from people with an IQ less than a quarter of their own.
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