Keeping it Simple...Ben Stein...

[Cut-Throat]

I would think you guys would appreciate the fact that the mit guys homes were paid off. Of course maintaining a house is still more than a car. Even without debt.

I appreciate his home was paid off. I wonder where he got the money?

Let's compare a Harvard Law Graduate with a Garbage truck driver in Mississippi. - Most any choice the garbage truck driver makes he will come out behind the Harvard Law graduate. Do you see the problem?

 

[Milton]

t seems to me that his financial advice has more than a hint of "I'm writing this so I'll remember what I need to do myself." I believe writing is therapeutic for him, that his books are mostly for himself. If I find it hard to accept him as an authority, it's because I see him as a person who is struggling to learn lessons which he's pretended to master... He's not a crackpot. He's got some good ideas. I just think he could present them with a little more humility and honesty.

We should all consider the above whenever we post. I see some of myself in this, and believe that it applies to pretty much everyone else on the forum, too.

 

[Culture]

Let's compare a Harvard Law Graduate with a Garbage truck driver in Mississippi. - Most any choice the garbage truck driver makes he will come out behind the Harvard Law graduate. Do you see the problem?

CT,

Are you saying that if the GT driver chooses to

1) save 10% of his income for his entire life,
2) stay in his original life and pay off his mortgage,
3) never carry consumer debt, and
4) stay married to his orginal wife.

he will normally come out behind a college graduate who

1) moves to a more expensive home every five years,
2) used a home equity load to keep his home equity near zero,
3) carries a years salary of consumer debt,
4) never saves a penny, and
5) is married and divorced three times?

I always thought it matters the choices you make, and what you save, not if you go to college and what you earn. Do you disagree?

My point being, the choices that BS is advocating will allow the GT driver to come out ahead of the MIT grad, if the MIT grad makes the typical American lifestyle choices. I agree (generally) with BS's point.

edit -> add last paragraph

 

[Cut-Throat]

CT,

Are you saying that if the GT driver chooses to

1) save 10% of his income for his entire life,
2) stay in his original life and pay off his mortgage,
3) never carry consumer debt, and
4) stay married to his orginal wife.

he will normally come out behind a college graduate who

1) moves to a more expensive home every five years,
2) used a home equity load to keep his home equity near zero,
3) carries a years salary of consumer debt,
4) never saves a penny, and
5) is married and divorced three times?

I always thought it matters the choices you make, and what you save, not if you go to college and what you earn. Do you disagree?

My point being, the choices that BS is advocating will allow the GT driver to come out ahead of the MIT grad, if the MIT grad makes the typical American lifestyle choices. I agree (generally) with BS's point.

edit -> add last paragraph

There are always exceptions to every example.

What I'm saying is; why didn't Ben compare 2 handymen? instead of 2 people that had been dealt entirely different cards?

 

[Cut-Throat]

I always thought it matters the choices you make, and what you save, not if you go to college and what you earn. Do you disagree?
edit -> add last paragraph

I totally disagree! - Kids raised in great homes, where they are encouraged to go to college and the parents are not bums will out pace the ghetteo kids by a huge margin.

They also make better choices too - Do you see the relationship?

 

[nun]

Wow Tiki, I understand why you were so hurt. There is nothing to quite compare with being treated with open contempt by someone we care about.

Ha

Ben Stein sounds like a fairly regular guy to me, full of himself, insensitive and looking to get as many women as he can.

 

[Culture]

I totally disagree! - Kids raised in great homes, where they are encouraged to go to college and the parents are not bums will out pace the ghetteo kids by a huge margin.

They also make better choices too - Do you see the relationship?

Are you suggesting that everyone who drives a garbage truck had bums for parents and grew up in the ghetto? Or are you suggesting that eveyone who grown up in the ghetto is doomed to make poor choices (no free will, I guess)? I have some employees you really need to meet. They will conclusively demonstrate that growing up in the ghetto, you can still out pace those who grew up in middle class suburbia.

BTW, I thought that we were talking about whether or not the same set of financial advice regarding spending is applicable to both high and low wage earners. Did I miss something?

edit -> Opps, i missed your "There are always exceptions to every example" statement. Ignore my comments as needed. think we are talking past each other. My point is simply that LBYM applied to everyone, regardless of income or education. Could BT have provided a better example by comparing people of similiar means? Yes. However, that does not invalidate his message.

 

[haha]

Ben Stein sounds like a fairly regular guy to me, full of himself, insensitive and looking to get as many women as he can.

Well that is the stereotype, but I don't know men like this. Although I suppose thata woman might be more apt to meet this type of person.

Ha

 

[Culture]

What I'm saying is; why didn't Ben compare 2 handymen? instead of 2 people that had been dealt entirely different cards?

CT,

I agree this would have been a better, but not required, example.