My grandfather told me the same thing. He was a tough old coot. Amassed millions in real estate and mutual funds but was a highschool dropout. Couldnt understand why i wouldn't work as a night watchman at my office during my first job out of college. That way i would save on rent AND get paid 24 hours per day!
sounds like a young doorman whom i know. he always volunteers for the saturday night shift when the regular doorman wants off. that way he receives overtime plus he doesn't have to take his girlfriend out. by the time he goes home he made 3X his regular shift in his pocket. compared to most millennials his girlfriend thinks he is ambitious and has a future. additionally for the record he is going to college full time and will be graduating college without a single dime of debt +savings in the bank.
I think that today, working hard isn't really how you get ahead. You get ahead by screwing other people, and this is facilitated by the rules and laws that supposedly elected officials enact. You've got CEO's on one end who make obscene amounts of money, and on the other end you've got companies like Uber who are actually bypassing laws in order to screw the taxi industry. (not saying that there shouldn't be more options for consumers, but Uber isn't it) My point is that in today's world, hard work isn't what is being recognized and properly rewarded. Figuring out how to screw the next guy is what is called being smart today, and the government is happy to facilitate this in order to prop up the markets which really only benefits a small segment of the population. When self driving cars come into the spotlight, Uber will be more than happy to get rid of all of their drivers since labor costs are of course always the most expensive part of any business, and so while more people lose jobs, Uber investors will become richer and richer. In conclusion, although recession's comment's were a bit harsh (I thought he was more so joking), the fact of the matter is that working today isn't what most people see as a way to get ahead, so why bother. And yes, the messed up taxation of today is what creates this huge inequality which wasn't the case 50 years ago based on the charts that I've seen.
except for the few years when my trading expenses were high and I filed as pro trader I have always filed as retired getting ahead means simply spending $1 less per month than you make. Once you get to that point it takes off very quickly.
has nothing to do with rich/poor, but with logic higher taxes on the top 10% = less income, less savings = the gap between the poor and rich is lowered the ET crowd is 60+ year old republicans though, so i can understand the arrogance of the baby boomers, the generation responsible for the tech bubble and the great recession
Should be, "working is the ONLY way to get ahead", so you must "bother" if you intend upon eating. There should not be an option to lie back, cry poor, and collect social welfare benefits. The better alternative would be "work or go hungry". You might be surprised how motivating it is to have an empty stomach.
I agree with you here. I hate to bring race into this, but not too long ago I read an article that listed something like 40 things that a white person can do that a black person cannot, and it was absolutely true. A white person simply takes it for granted that they are white and aren't automatically stigmatized and have no idea. They have done similar things with obese people, or rather, putting a thin person in a fat suit and seeing the huge difference in how the general public relates to them. What I mean with all of this is that much of the ET crowd thinks that all you have to do is work hard and opportunity will come to you, and this is simply not the case anymore. You have to work hard, work smart, be well connected, and also have a clear idea of who you are going to screw in order to get what you want!