The Power of Money

I would first say, re-read this: "Sadly- the solutions to their predicament are all around them, but they aren't prepared to listen or learn. They only want to hear confirmation of what they already believe, and there are always politicians ready to agree with them- and gain the power to manipulate them."

You are free in any economy to take another job- or to start your own enterprise. Now, finding someone that wants to hire a person with your attitude may be difficult, but that is something that is within your power to change. In a tight economy, employers can be more selective in hiring, because more of the better people are available. All you have to do is make yourself one of them. (Put your butt in the drivers seat of your own life, take charge of who you will be)

In the labor market, the business is a customer, and the employee is the seller. No different than you going to the grocery store- you won't shop where the value is low, the attitude crappy or the product inferior. You expect good service, good value, good quality. If you show an employer that if he pays you $50 an hour you can bring in $50 profit on top of that- he would be an idiot not to hire you, wouldn't he? That is true in any economy. If you can do that, even if the not-hiring sign is out- he will either make a new position for you or fire the worst of his existing employees to make a place for you.

And as a business owner for over 40 years who has founded and run 6 companies- I'm speaking from long experience on both sides of the deal.

 

a living wage job has always been the fundamental required for freedom, because it allows for savings to job hunt or start a business.

since there is not free education to be marketable, tariffs and a huge wall are needed for the unskilled and uneducated.

this is the disconnect of the richer half who voted for clinton, and the poorer half who voted for President Trump.

 

As one of the poorer half that voted for Trump- and one whose income tax alone would support several families, and one who has never taken so much as an unemployment check from the public trough...

I say you are looking at one side of the picture, with little knowledge of the other. The lib side has tried to portray the conservative side as some kind of lesser class that can be dismissed- I think in part because of too much self-approval for the grandeur of liberal ideas that just don't work in the real world. Some say lacking a college degree means you are uneducated- but life and the world is an education, one that some learn from and some don't. Like the guy with a PhD who was a warehouse janitor for me for years, because he didn't know how to actually use all that knowledge his parents bought for him. In the end, people that can make things happen and work are the people who make a difference.

Of course, it takes a certain amount of money to live a reasonable level lifestyle. IF you have some skill and are productive, you can have that. The error here is the concept of entitlement- that the "living wage" is something owed to you, not something you earn. The biggest fallacy for the liberal point of view is that you are not in charge of your own life- and therefore not responsible for what you do or think. Believing that is abdicating your own power and control over your life to others who will never have your best interests at the top of the list. It's surrendering the right to self-respect... the ability to look in the mirror, know that you can handle whatever life throws at you and still like who you are. Nobody can give you that; you must earn it from yourself. If it were such that you were handed a vast fortune- the power of self-respect would not come with it. The only person who can make you happy with life is you- and so long as you sit in the back of the bus and complain because it's not going your way, that power will not be yours.

Millions of people built the nation with far less than we have today- and worked far harder so that we could build an even greater nation today- they did not do that so we could feed off their work and whine our way to poverty. The "Great Society" that the libs envision is based on this concept that productivity is slavery. Even Bernie Sanders life is an example- in his hippy days, he was kicked out of a commune because he wouldn't work. His net worth is about $300,000 after years of congressional paychecks- but I keep more than that in my bank account, in spite of my not having a degree. He was not exactly the shining example of fine management, but millions loved his message that someone else was to blame, that they owed his followers and and he would make them pay. Irresponsible is too kind a word for that.

For many years, I was a partner in a Scuba school- a hobby kind of out of control, that allowed me to travel and dive wonderful places. In doing this- I always wound up asking myself the same question. I would look at these huge reefs and vast collections of life in all sizes and varieties. Everything was alive- and everything was thriving. In their world, the big, small, weak and strong all thrived. There was no government, no politicians, no regulation. No laws or police, no lawyers, no religions, no doctors or hospitals- and there was no trash. They were not poisoning their world, not destroying anything- yet they lived in a thriving harmony of success. I would always ask myself- "What do they know that we don't know?"

I didn't go there understanding what I do now, and my life wasn't so hot then. The answer took me years to figure out, but I did. Every living thing there accepts responsibility for itself. Each and every one was given, by nature- all it needed to be itself, and very successfully. That is the first purpose in life, to be responsible for yourself. The differences between them didn't matter because each had what it need to succeed. I realized that I must have that too- and from that moment on, I lived by what I learned that day. Best decision I ever made.

Opportunity is everywhere, in both good times and bad. It's open to the poor as well as the rich. But it is not visible to the closed mind, to the unmotivated, to the angry victims of evil employers, and those who do not know that the power over their own life is truly their power. Power that you will never have until you are willing to get your butt in the drivers seat and take control, somebody else is running it. It's not up to others to make your life what you want it to be- it's up to you. Same for everybody, regardless of politics.

 

+1000. Outstanding reply.

 

if this is true it means everyone who was poor and voted for President Trump was swindled.

what you are saying is that taking personal responsibility for ones self is the only thing required for money and success, and that the average person who works hard can succeed in America without tariffs and a huge wall.

i always thought the only way to help the poor was to redistribute wealth using lawful government force, or using the free market with tariffs and a huge wall from the suggestion of President Trump.

 

The problem is that to give help that way, you have to steal the funds from others first. Being lawful does not makes something right, and most certainly does not make a dishonest act honest. It does preclude prosecution- and it does encourage more of the same kind of thinking.

Taking personal responsibility IS NOT the only thing; that is not what I said. However it is the key thing- because it empowers the person, and that opens the door to opportunity and choices that they never saw before. Within that empowerment- we learn to develop judgment, willpower, confidence and many more things. Some people have a driving ambition to be very successful- and this empowerment usually makes them wealthy, because they accomplish more. For the person who is not so driven, it still makes life much more practical and dramatically reduces the crisis that many live in daily.

For example- money management. Everybody understands the saying "(*)(*)(*)(*) happens", meaning that things naturally will go wrong, or break or in someway upset their plans. If you are a good money manager- and that means adjusting your lifestyle to your income so that you can save, and possibly invest to prepare for the future- an amazing things happens. When somethings goes wrong, like your car's alternator dies and costs $200, you simply mutter a curse at the car, and put on a new alternator. Because you have the money, because you were prepared, that is the end of it, the event is a hiccup. But if you don't have the money, the same problem becomes a crisis. You can't get to work- and if you don't you may lose your job. You can't get to the store or get food for the table- and may have to let the rent or utility bills go late in order to fix your car... damaging your credit rating, which may prevent you from getting the credit card or loan you have been working for. One crisis precipitates others. It's like driving down the highway of life wearing blinders which prevent you from seeing more the 50 foot ahead.

Responsibility is the starting place, the first and critical component of an overall lifeskill that covers about everything- but is controlled by a few principles. The first principle opens the door: "Every individual is responsible for themselves- for everything they say, do, think or feel." I taught lifeskills for a few years, but got tired of people wanting the benefits without being willing to live by the principles behind it. That doesn't work- but living it works like it was a new world.

I live by three principles- and I can write them on the back of a business card. They work!

 

it is very difficult to save from low wages caused by cheap labor from illegal immigrants and in foreign countries.

hopefully with tariffs and a huge wall, Americans at the bottom will have the opportunity to be savers instead of only spenders as they are now.