On Becoming Part Of The 1%

[Steven_R]

I keep reading about how there is this 1% and how much they have and how much more they are amassing and so on and so forth, but what is stopping anyone in America from joining them? Anyone can invest in the stock market or trade bonds, free education is available to every child and anyone can go to college thanks to student loans and scholarships. The sky is the limit here, so how much of the class divide is really class warfare and how much is people not using the opportunities they have or making poor choices?

 

[DiamondDave]

But but but.. only the government can get someone out of poverty

 

[nodoginnafight]

I keep reading about how there is this 1% and how much they have and how much more they are amassing and so on and so forth, but what is stopping anyone in America from joining them? Anyone can invest in the stock market or trade bonds, free education is available to every child and anyone can go to college thanks to student loans and scholarships. The sky is the limit here, so how much of the class divide is really class warfare and how much is people not using the opportunities they have or making poor choices?

I think those are actually some pretty decent points. I would like to hear some folks address what they believe are systemic roadblocks to upward mobility. Maybe the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots is not an economic crisis. Maybe it is a social crisis.

 

[Moxie2]

I keep reading about how there is this 1% and how much they have and how much more they are amassing and so on and so forth, but what is stopping anyone in America from joining them? Anyone can invest in the stock market or trade bonds, free education is available to every child and anyone can go to college thanks to student loans and scholarships. The sky is the limit here, so how much of the class divide is really class warfare and how much is people not using the opportunities they have or making poor choices?

AMEN!

Nothing. That's the whole point of America. Liberals love to demonize Capitalism by saying "Your parents are poor, you are poor. Your parents are rich, you are rich." When, in fact, it is their beloved communism that breeds this inherited inequality...

I doubt you will get many responses from Liberals to your great thread. They are incapable of answering a logical question, it defies everything they stand for!

 

[Spiderman]

I keep reading about how there is this 1% and how much they have and how much more they are amassing and so on and so forth, but what is stopping anyone in America from joining them? Anyone can invest in the stock market or trade bonds, free education is available to every child and anyone can go to college thanks to student loans and scholarships. The sky is the limit here, so how much of the class divide is really class warfare and how much is people not using the opportunities they have or making poor choices?

I think those are actually some pretty decent points. I would like to hear some folks address what they believe are systemic roadblocks to upward mobility. Maybe the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots is not an economic crisis. Maybe it is a social crisis.

I will tell you the biggest roadblock to financial success.

People think they should be able succeed by only working 40 hours a week and spending everything they make.

 

[Jarhead]

I keep reading about how there is this 1% and how much they have and how much more they are amassing and so on and so forth, but what is stopping anyone in America from joining them? Anyone can invest in the stock market or trade bonds, free education is available to every child and anyone can go to college thanks to student loans and scholarships. The sky is the limit here, so how much of the class divide is really class warfare and how much is people not using the opportunities they have or making poor choices?

I think those are actually some pretty decent points. I would like to hear some folks address what they believe are systemic roadblocks to upward mobility. Maybe the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots is not an economic crisis. Maybe it is a social crisis.

I will tell you the biggest roadblock to financial success.

People think they should be able succeed by only working 40 hours a week and spending everything they make.

it is deeper than that.

People have been led to believe that if you are a working American, then you are automatically a HARD working American.

Working 40 hours a week does not make you a hard working American. It makes you a working American.

When people understand that, they may realize that they can work harder; be better; achieve success.

 

[nodoginnafight]

I think those are actually some pretty decent points. I would like to hear some folks address what they believe are systemic roadblocks to upward mobility. Maybe the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots is not an economic crisis. Maybe it is a social crisis.

I will tell you the biggest roadblock to financial success.

People think they should be able succeed by only working 40 hours a week and spending everything they make.

it is deeper than that.

People have been led to believe that if you are a working American, then you are automatically a HARD working American.

Working 40 hours a week does not make you a hard working American. It makes you a working American.

When people understand that, they may realize that they can work harder; be better; achieve success.

Maybe it is a question of drive. Maybe a lot of kids who grew up with one or more parents who were never home because they were working all those extra hours to provide their children with more, decided that they'd rather have the relationship with their parent.

I believe a lot of younger working people would rather have the time with their families than the stuff that comes from working a lot of extra hours.

So, no harm there. But I'm sure somewhere in the back of their minds, they'd like to provide for their family as well as their workaholic parents did for them.


so maybe it's not a conflict .... maybe it's just a choice.

 

[occupied]

The very idea that anyone can get really wealthy is retarded. Practically anyone can work themselves into an early grave to pay debts on houses and cars though, I think many conservatives equate borrowing power to wealth. What of those who do not like the idea of massive debt? In our society it seems an unwillingness to take on long-term debt is seen as laziness for some reason.

 

[nodoginnafight]

The very idea that anyone can get really wealthy is retarded. Practically anyone can work themselves into an early grave to pay debts on houses and cars though, I think many conservatives equate borrowing power to wealth. What of those who do not like the idea of massive debt? In our society it seems an unwillingness to take on long-term debt is seen as laziness for some reason.

It seems to me that folks in our society are all too comfortable with massive debt.

 

[Spiderman]

The very idea that anyone can get really wealthy is retarded. Practically anyone can work themselves into an early grave to pay debts on houses and cars though, I think many conservatives equate borrowing power to wealth. What of those who do not like the idea of massive debt? In our society it seems an unwillingness to take on long-term debt is seen as laziness for some reason.

Define wealthy.

And I have never had a car loan, or carried credit card debt past one billing cycle.

Anyone can retire a millionaire it's quite simple.

Save 200 a month from age 18 to age 68 and earn a fairly conservative 8% and retire with 1.5 million. Now imagine what that would be if you saved the max allowable for a Roth IRA 458 a month for the same time at the same return (3.6 million)

Now safely invest that 1.5million (or 3.6 million) at 5% and withdraw 60K a year and you will never run out of money before you croak and have millions left over to leave to your family.

One person can create a legacy of wealth in his lifetime for his family for 200 a month.

 

[Moonglow]

Ahhhh,

 

[g5000]

But but but.. only the government can get someone out of poverty

And don't forget only the government can save Wall Street.

 

[Moonglow]

Bankers love the govt. saving them from themselves...

 

[depotoo]

The very idea that anyone can get really wealthy is retarded. Practically anyone can work themselves into an early grave to pay debts on houses and cars though, I think many conservatives equate borrowing power to wealth. What of those who do not like the idea of massive debt? In our society it seems an unwillingness to take on long-term debt is seen as laziness for some reason.

there were 6.85 million millionaires in the US in 2000. Today there are over 12 million. Don't tell me that. And you don't have to be a millionaire to be secure.
Drive, working smart and learning to put away some every paycheck can all help one attain their goals. Screaming at others because of what they have is nothing more than wasted energy. Some see the glass as half empty, but the winners in life see that same glass as half full.

 

[alan1]

The very idea that anyone can get really wealthy is retarded. Practically anyone can work themselves into an early grave to pay debts on houses and cars though, I think many conservatives equate borrowing power to wealth. What of those who do not like the idea of massive debt? In our society it seems an unwillingness to take on long-term debt is seen as laziness for some reason.

Bill Gates, the college dropout, is the wealthiest person in the world.
Mark Zuckerburg, the college dropout, was the youngest person to become a billionaire.
Facts are against you.

 

[KNB]

If it's so easy to become rich then why didn't any of you Conservatives bother to do it?

Or are we all to believe that you Republican Conservatives invested wisely and saved millions of dollars and now that your lives are fulfilled, you don't have anything else to do but sit around all day on a public internet messageboard?

 

[alan1]

If it's so easy to become rich then why didn't any of you Conservatives bother to do it?

Or are we all to believe that you Republican Conservatives invested wisely and saved millions of dollars and now that your lives are fulfilled, you don't have anything else to do but sit around all day on a public internet messageboard?

We didn't say it was easy, we said it was possible.
I hate to break it to you, but there is a difference.

 

[Meister]

If it's so easy to become rich then why didn't any of you Conservatives bother to do it?

Or are we all to believe that you Republican Conservatives invested wisely and saved millions of dollars and now that your lives are fulfilled, you don't have anything else to do but sit around all day on a public internet messageboard?

I'm not a republican, but I had an average paying job. I invested in America and saved what I had and retired early so I could hang out on a public messageboard.

Trust me, if I could do it so could a lot of people. The hardest part in doing it is making the right decisions and keeping debt low.

 

[occupied]

The very idea that anyone can get really wealthy is retarded. Practically anyone can work themselves into an early grave to pay debts on houses and cars though, I think many conservatives equate borrowing power to wealth. What of those who do not like the idea of massive debt? In our society it seems an unwillingness to take on long-term debt is seen as laziness for some reason.

Bill Gates, the college dropout, is the wealthiest person in the world.
Mark Zuckerburg, the college dropout, was the youngest person to become a billionaire.
Facts are against you.

We cannot all be talented visionaries either. For every person who went deep into debt to start a business and succeeded there are many more who failed, they did everything the land of opportunity people say to do and failed anyway because they lacked the vision to find a niche and properly capitalize on it, does it make those people lazy or stupid? No, they are just not cut out for it. How many people would have been saved from ruin if they could honestly gauge their business plan rather than buy all the hoopla that hard work and determination is the key to success when in reality it is vision that is the key and that other stuff is just the means to an end.

 

[Steven_R]

I'm not sure that's the argument though. I mean, how many people that are working low wage jobs and are tits deep in debt spent every penny they ever got on needless stuff instead of putting some in savings? How many people working minimum wage jobs at 30 dropped out of school and had kids they can't afford? How many people with 500 dollar a month student loan payments took more than they needed in loans and pissed away that money on trips and clothes and other non-essentials? How many people who earned a degree and have a job that pays little and all they do is shuffle papers because they got a degree in Gender Studies or Puppetry or Political Science instead of getting a degree in a STEM field because STEM classes are hard?

How many of the 99% bitching about the 1% are in the 99% because they make bad decisions and how many will stay they because they aren't willing to make the sacrifices to improve their lot in life?