SmallCityDave
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2018
- Messages
- 309
It is an opinion piece citing a number of actual research studies.
And other opinion pieces in the same publication.
It is an opinion piece citing a number of actual research studies.
All opportunities IMO are here today, for everyone that wants them bad enough. You just have to be creative, and will yourself to make the goals you want. Sacrifices will have to be made at every turn but having a good retirement financially, can be accomplished where every you live and work in the US.
Just my 2¢ and I'm a believer in that, no matter how many bumps along the way you can achieve what you have set out for if you want it bad enough.
And other opinion pieces in the same publication.
Food, Clothing and Shelter - these are the three things that a human really needs. Most Every thing else is a want.
We chase accumulating more electronic bits($) because we are monkey at our core. I want to have this because I see other monkey chasing it.
In my mind, someone working a low-stress, low paying job who doesn't compare himself to others is way ahead of us other monkeys chasing electronic bits.
People in Bhutan are/were happy people. They don't even have $ or 2 saved. But once they saw other countries on TV, they wanted to chase the same thing as well. And misery will spread there as well.
Simpler life is happier life. We are only making it complicated, day by day!
To accept that would force us to admit we'd had some advantage beyond our own industrious attitude and superior work ethic. Why embrace that when we can slap ourselves on the back instead and look down on the under achievers?
People can still succeed these days, but it is harder. We can point out that the kids are drinking expensive coffee and are paying too much for their phones, but the inflationary costs for the big ticket expenses of college education and housing and health insurance are a reality. When I went to the state university for my undergrad (ok, 4 decades ago), tuition and fees were a hair under $1K. It is now approaching $16K. I realize the then-year dollar versus current-year, but realistically, the starting salary of $25K 40 years ago isn't $400K today).
Median household income in the US was $68k last year. If your average income, adjusted for inflation, was above that for your entire career, you were not “lower” middle class, but substantially above that.
I think a large part of the problem has already been mentioned by many on here...and that is that people "expect" things today or see them as "required" when they are really luxuries. A few examples:
1) My grandparents had a garage door opener, it was called their left arm
2) Being able to carry a phone around with you wherever you go? unheard of in those days...but we "need" this service now
3) used to be that 3 TV channels was sufficient...but people today can't live without 400 channels, on-demand movies, and so on
4) Today our kitchens have numerous ways to cook things such as ovens, microwaves, griddles, hot air cookers, etc. None of those are "necessary"...people lived just fine without them only 60 years ago
To accept that would force us to admit we'd had some advantage beyond our own industrious attitude and superior work ethic. Why embrace that when we can slap ourselves on the back instead and look down on the under achievers?
Here is a start -
https://ncd.gov/newsroom/2017/disability-poverty-connection-2017-progress-report-release
Quick Report Takes:
People with disabilities live in poverty at more than twice the rate of people without disabilities.
People with disabilities make up approximately 12 percent of the U.S. working-age population; however, they account for more than half of those living in long-term poverty.
Currently, an estimated 228,600 people with intellectual/developmental disabilities and other significant disabilities work for subminimum wage.
I tend to read a sense of moral superiority in these threads.
Moral superiority on steroids, like a lack of consumerism and LBYMs are 100% of the issue, regardless of research studies with hard data on factors such as social mobility over time and compared to other developed countries, college costs, increasing health costs, number of poor with physical or emotional disabilities, racial and gender discrimination, decline of middle class jobs, etc.
Even in countries with the lowest social mobility scores, some people are going to get ahead despite the odds being stacked against them. A low social or educational mobility score doesn't mean it is impossible for anyone to get ahead. It means it has gotten harder over time to get ahead or perhaps it is harder than need be compared to other relatively wealthy countries.
What it seems like people here are saying is because I got ahead, I don't believe that research from our top universities into income and poverty with factors like hard data on decreasing social and education mobility scores over for the country as a whole matters. Or I don't want to believe any of it is true, even though few / maybe none of the research studies on income and poverty, show laziness as a top factor for a lack of success in America today.