| pb1285n said: The problem with his statement is that you can only get rich by following certain paths in life. A construction worker will never be rich, a cashier at a grocery store will never be rich, a bus driver will never be rich. Does that mean they don't work as hard, if not harder then someone who makes 100k+ a year? Of course it doesn't. People like Herman Cain don't seem to understand this and they don't respect or even appreciate the middle or lower class. If everyone had the aspiration to follow one of these paths toward a high paying career that would be great but who would wait are tables, or bag are groceries?
Now I don't think the problem is that the poor want to be rich, they just want to live comfortably. It's not about getting hand outs, it's about getting a fair share. The price of living goes up, minimum wage needs to go up. It's not possible to survive on 6.25 in most areas of the country. |
Actually, you can become rich in any of those careers. Likewise, you can make 100k/yr and never become rich.
I could easily see a bus driver or construction worker becoming a millionaire if they did the right things. Grocier at a store would be difficult, but I have a good friend that started as a stockboy at Wal-Mart that is now making his way up the ladder pretty nicely, and I know if he made the right decisions, he could be rich too. Another example could be that construction worker starting his own handyman service and growing it into a big business. Gary Johnson started out as a construction worker, and led it to become a multi-million dollar construction service over a 15 year period and retired from it rather wealthy.
When I was 20, I did a lot of right things with my $8/hr paychecks from my jobs. I know that if I kept those jobs I could be rich. Maybe not a multi-millionaire, but I know that its pretty easy to have a million dollars or more in assets. Before the real estate collapse, I was worth about $250,000 at age 22 simply by making the right moves in life. That was without getting a dime from my parents, who have been poverty-stricken their whole life. I'm worth about that much at 26, but I took a big hit during the real estate collapse, but if I continue to make what I make now, I am certain that by age 30 I will be worth about $500,000 or more.
The reality is that you have to make right decisions, tough decisions, and that is what a lot of people do not want to do, are not informed how to do, or simply won't do it. It also takes time, which many people do not want to give to compound interest or other wealth-creating strategies that aren't get-rich-quick schemes or quick rags to riches stories.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
