Life's inequalities

[blackribbon]

The people I know who are "rich" ... more than a million type of rich ... invested their money and usually did it with their own knowledge, not blindly giving it to a broker. My husband tried to invest (on a very modest level) but we had to reclaim that money to survive every time he got a new cancer diagnosis and couldn't work for an extended period of time. I will say that those modest investments were one of the prime ways that God provided during the times of "famine" in our home. The three people I know can claim to be "millionaires" really don't look that much different than the ones I know who are living paycheck to paycheck. I doubt that anyone would "guess" and they don't live extravagantly and are generous with their money. Mostly, just their vacations are a bit nicer than the average joe. As a whole, I don't know that they are happier people either. The three men I am thinking of are all extremely decent people. Maybe a bit more driven though ....

And after going through nursing school, I will never pretend to understand what it takes to get some people to their "dreams". I have a bachelor's in engineering and I would not have made it through the first semester if it was half as stressful or grueling as this nursing school is. I have seen peoples with Master's degree in tears over very real fears of flunking out...and watched other students suffer through unacceptable levels of mental abuse in the clinical settings. It is not most of the instructors but there are enough that you stand in dread that it might be you next and sometimes that is crippling in itself. So although my job might not look that much different from the Nursing assistant's job....the road it took to get here was definitely much different. And although many of my skills could be taught to a trained monkey....it is the decision making responsibilites, that I will get paid for. Knowing when NOT to give a patient his prescribed medications...knowing when to suddenly start an emergency treatment...and recognizing when a potential emergency is just starting to appear so that it can be completely avoided. I am paid to recognize that slight rash on your leg was not there 2 hours ago and recognize that it could be a reaction that indicates that your whole system might be starting to crash before you even notice that it "kind of itches" or even is there...and determine if a little lotion is in order or a call to a physician.

Ironically, one of those millionaires is quietly attending nursing school just because he wants to be a nurse and feels he "has something to offer". I have all the respect for him that he hasn't just walked out on the program since he doesn't "need" to be here. I will also say, I used to have to talk him out of quitting and giving up on a weekly basis (he was less than a year away from finishing at that point).

At the same time...I have worked with nursing assistants who give their whole being to the patients in their care ... they may not have suffered through school, but they do a hard job for minimal money. And I couldn't do my job if they didn't do theirs.

I don't know that it is hard work that really makes a difference. My friends would also add in that "frugal" living played a part...but to be honest, taking a coupon to a restaurant isn't quite the same as figuring out how to make $100 feed a family of 4 for a week (and obviously, no restaurants will be involved).

Maybe we just get the life that has the lessons in it that we need to learn to help the people we are going to encounter along the way.

 

[dayhiker]

Good points, black. If the 1% I was talking about didn't take so much of the money available each of the people you know would get 20 to 30K more per year.

Warren Buffet, who works hard and has worked hard for 60 years or go made 23 million a day last year, as in 23 million every including Saturdays and Sundays!

In one sense I'm not against people making a billion dollars a day. When I was growing up there was a view that we needed the rich because it was they that invested their money to create jobs. So when the rich buy one of the new 10-90 million dollar suits in 157 just off Central park NYC I don't have any problem at all. The money to build those expensive suits put a lot of people to work. But most of the 100 millions the rich make each year are not going to put people to work, but just make more money in schemes that only put a few money managers to work. While Warren's 23 millions a day could put 57,000 to work making 400 per day. Much of that money would be spent in local stores within a month putting those store clerks to work as well.

So that's how I see the big picture.

 

[blackribbon]

Good points, black. If the 1% I was talking about didn't take so much of the money available each of the people you know would get 20 to 30K more per year.

.

Why would it be "available" or even spread evenly? Money isn't backed by anything tangible anymore. And if most of us had an extra $20K a year, our lives wouldn't be "better"...we would just spend it.

I am against raising the minimum wage because it just gives the allusion of making more money..while the reality of it is that cost of living just increases proportionally because we need more money to pay those low level earners...they make more "money" so they now have to pay more in taxes (so the actual amount may even drop)...and they devalue what used to be higher paying jobs by making the difference less (why work harder if I only am going to make a $1 or $2 more per hour than the entry level people?).

 

[dayhiker]

Well, in general I feel if I have more money my life is better. Only one a several things I'd use to evaluate if my life is better.

I see minimum wage as a way for corporate executives to have the company make more money so they can get more stock options. That is why the gap between the poor and the rick is getting wider and wider. Its not giving a good wage to the workers in my mind.

 

[blackribbon]

I see minimum wage as an entry level job. I don't want my teenagers making $10 or $11 an hour on a side job. I don't want to pay what it would cost to buy a McD hamburger from a place paying its lowest wage earners $10 an hour to take out the trash and clean a bathroom. Raising the minimum wage doesn't raise the spending power or lifestyle of the worker if everything around goes up proportionally. I believe in paying market value for most jobs. If someone is willing to do a job for $5 an hour, then that is what that job is worth. If no one is skilled enough or willing, then that job's value goes up until someone is willing to do it for a set price.

Actually, I would guess you measure your success based on how much extra you have after your basic needs are met and not really on how much you make. That is why people with less needs can genuinely be happy. And people who feel like they have greater "needs", always feel like they are struggling.

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

There never can and never should be total monetary equality IMO.

I am not in favor of raising the minimum wage either, for the same reasons blackribbon stated.

I am all for people doing what they can (legally and morally) to seek their life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and whatever wealth that brings with it.

However, I am not in favor of the millions of dollars people are paid to run companies these days and the millions in severance and bonuses they award themselves. If those CEO's didn't make so much they could afford to pay the workers more without charging more for their product.

In this world, there will always be greed and as long as there is greed, nothing will be equal. It's funny the President talks about equality, but I don't see him handing out his money.

With riches IMO, also comes responsibility. If you hoard your money and keep it to yourself, I don't see God allowing you to have it for long.

I don't have a problem with people being rich or driving nice cars and living in nice houses and I am not for them giving up all that just to prove that they care about poor people. Whether one person lives richly or not, we will also always have the poor with us. The bible tells us this.

You know in the bible, God asked Solomon what did he want Him to give him and Solomon asked for wisdom. God was pleased and gave him not only wisdom, but also riches. But Solomon made a good choice. The reason people are rich most of the time is because they are smart!
I used to think I was smart, but now I know that I am not. If I was, I would be better off financially, and I would have stayed in school and gotten a degree so I could have a better paying job. Obviously that was not God's plan for my life but.....

 

[dayhiker]

For the most part I'm for supply and demand.

The problem I see with minimum wage is that its more often than not not a high school kid working a few hours after school for some spending money. Most of the people here working those jobs are adults. So we have adults working to support a family on minimum wage or a little higher.

I actually spend almost no time thinking about success. I live pretty cheaply as well compared to most. The last time I got fired I was able to pay all my bills on my unemployment check.

I see minimum wage as leveling the playing field. CEOs are on each others boards. So they vote each other pay raises and give each other stock options that are worth millions of dollars. Then if they see a way the laws of the country are not working for them they get a lobbyist to write a bill that will help out their business and the lobbyist works to get lawmakers to pass that bill. Then their employees would like to get paid enough so they ask their representatives to pass a bill giving them a little more way. But the big guys all say there will 500,000 jobs lost. But of course the last time the minimum pay went up the next up we had the most jobs created in the next 4 years than any previous 4 yrs.

I not a woman, worked at a college, overseeing a professor's multimillion dollar budget. When she first started she was making enough money to pay her bills on time, take some nice vacations and she bought some amazing original art to decorate her apartment. 15 years later her boss was making still very good money and she was coming to me every few months saying she was going to be late paying her rent. Then the school wanted to reclassify all the secretaries and she was going to take a 5K cut in pay. Her boss had to go to the college and convince them that she was worth more than they were going to pay her!

So not raising the minimum wage is more evidence that the rich want to take more money from those without any influence. I've just seen business do this too many time to ignore it any more.

 

[exitstageright]

The people I know who are "rich" ... more than a million type of rich ... invested their money and usually did it with their own knowledge, not blindly giving it to a broker.




I cannot speak for anyone but myself. I do believe, that with God's help, that I was able to make it out of poverty by working hard. By playing sports in Junior High and High School,I applied the lessons that I learned in sports to my academic life. Those lessons were working hard, discipline, tenecity, being focused, and having goals. There was a saying that I would tell myself. That saying was, "Act possessed, be obsessed with success."
You see,I could either be my own best friend, or my own worse enemy.
Working hard, studying ,and abandoning a social life,while I was in the U.S. Navy, prepared me for the job that I have now.


When I was in college, this attractive, and smart woman told me that she wanted me to study with her. I shooed her away ,beacuse I was not good at multi-tasking. I wanted to get my schooling done, my California License ,and my career going before I started to look for someone to share my life with. She had a sad look on her face after I told her to please stop bothering me.Most people can do both. I have a hard time multi-tasking. But ,for me,I could only do one thing at a time. I just had to get "all of my ducks in a row" ,before I could start a relationship. You, see ,that attractive ,college educated, woman,who was interested in me, may have been the one that God had sent my way. But.....I.....just ......blew it, by being so......darn inflexible!!!

This was the second time that something like this has happened . I am usually content with my life,because I have done so many things that millions of people have only dreamed about. But,sometimes I just hate myself for being so freaking ignorant, when it comes to male and female relationships. I have learned the hard way, that trying very,very,very hard to succeed works well in academics and in sports. But, trying very,very,very,very hard does not work in relationships. No matter how hard I try. I just cannot make someone like me

There are times that I wish that I was the type of man,that when I walked into a room,that I would just cause the women in the room to "turn heads".
But,since I am not one of those pretty boys,I wil just have to adjust and to develop my personality in order to become attractive. That is one reason why I wish that I had a very good singing voice. Music just has such a magical effect on women. Case in point one can see how those girls behaved on the old video clips of The Beatles." Yes, I would just love to soulfully,and passionately sing a love song,in front of thousands of fans,and have some of the women pass out.

 

[dayhiker]

lol .. exit .. that last comment, I find pretty funny. I saw girls looking that way when guys played the guitar and so I learned to play the guitar, only trouble was, I couldn't hear the cord changes so always had to have the music with me. Didn't quite work the same!

 

[Texas101]

Sometimes were are caught in the environment we live in be it weather or circumstances. Years ago my house caught fire that was caused by a faulty appliance. Even though we were doing everything right something still went wrong.

Others are where they are as a result of a series of small decisions that eventually led to a desperate condition. I have a friend who's a librarian. At the time she got her education librarians were in short supply. Now that the digital age has matured libraries are becoming less of a need when you've got a search engine. My friend is now trying to figure out what to do as she sees here career path diminishing.

Still others lives are a brutal mess as a result of poor decisions, i.e. self-inflcted damage. My ex has destroyed her brain as a result drug and alcohol abuse. She can't carry on a conversation and is sometimes confused about her surroundings. She's only 50 and maybe this way for the next 30 years.

Yet there are some who are true victims. These are the one's who carry the scars of abuse or neglect at the hands of some one who took advantage of the vulnerable. These deep emotional scars can lead to poor decisions further adding to their misery.

Not everyone can pull themselves up by their boot straps. Sometimes the best way to gain wisdom is from making bad decision, some need to find their way out of their mess. Yet others will need to be shown the way through compassionate care and Christ like love.

All for now
Comments invited

 

[memoriesbymichelle]

Good post Texas101! I agree. But there comes a time in ones life that it "could" be too late for them to want to change. Not that they can't change, it's just that they don't want to deep inside. I have a step daughter that is going to be 37 in July. 37! She doesn't have a job. Her boyfriend just died of a heart attack. Well now I find out the bf was technically married to someone else! She says she is so worn out from taking care of everyone around her. Someone else is in the hospital and someone else is just sick, but she has no job. Her step dad sent her 100 bucks because she was crying to him about needing new tennis shoes and when she got the money she says she gave it to the woman she is staying with (that she takes care of). So I wonder.......if she will ever be able to live on her own instead of living off other people. MY BIL got divorced in his late 40's. Eventually went to live with his sister and bil and still does to this day. I think he will live with them forever. So in some people, IMO, there comes a turning point.

 

[dayhiker]

It takes all kinds ... so as you say texas and Michelle in your examples.

I guess the way I've been reaching out is I'm renting my apartment to some young kids that just learning their way. The first 2 yrs they struggles to figure out who to have live there and to pay their rent. They seem to be doing much better now. Tho their is still change, as one of the guy's mother is homeless and she is living upstairs quite a bit now. Will see how this new situation works out.