Do you know what the odds are that those that failed put in lots of effort? There is certainly an amount of circumstance - being in the right place at the right time to obtain something - but those odds can be greatly increased by putting forth effort. Few can climb up a corporate ladder, so it's important to build your very own ladder of success, to ensure your not relying on someone else. That is the key of small businesses, and most industry in America. Even Microsoft was started by a high school dropout that wanted to further his hobbies.

I made the money that I have by following these principles:

• Work hard
• Save harder
• Resist the urge to indulge in luxuries (e.g. no video game purchases, free games as often as possible)
• Buy used when applicable (cars are the pinnacle of this example)
• Invest (I obtained my assets by investing in properties, fixing them up, then renting them out. Rent allowed for income, while improvements increased the value of the properties)

Despite having that much in assets, my actual take home pay is still close to minimum wage. I earn approximately $400 a week - even then, the only reason I make that much is because I did a lot of side projects with video game stuff to get hired on as a video game analyst which only came by the way of working extra hours when they weren't called for. What assets I do have are wrapped up in properties - when I sell them, I will have enough money after taxes to buy a nice livable house for my family.

I love when people on a luxury forum (video games are a luxury) cry about the rich and prices for health care and gas prices.

Pro-tip dont buy a console or spend money on games put that away for yours or someone elses rainy day.

     Who says poor people shouldn't be entitled to the same good things as anyone else?  If they can't have them, then how can they hope to advance themselves as a person in the same way that people that have them can.

     I'll tell you all these people that have been protesting Obama's healthcare plans have really put a knife in my back.  Especially since I'm unemployed, have no people that will give me good references, a criminial record (that was brought about by putting forth effort and trying to be ambitious), don't own a car, and live 80 miles from any jobs.

Stickball,

Let me know when you get that "how to become wealthy on minimum wage" thing up, I'll be curious to read that.

The very basic overview is published via blog. It doesn't look the best, yet, but has a few basic ideas for helping yourself out while barely making ends meet. There are (litterally) hundreds of things that I need to add to help spur along ideas on becoming wealthy on minimum wage.

But you can view the basic overview at www.minimumwagewealth.com

I think there are ~10 articles currently, but I am adding more each week, and hope to have a lot more in the future.

Well I've already got the "set aside some money every month" and the "cook all your food" thing down....

Very good

I'll keep adding articles and ping you when there's more content. It's really an issue of time more than anything else. As I stated, the goal is to have as many minor and major ideas as possible to increase your income, and decrease expenses.

When your on minimum or near minimum wage, it becomes very critical to work on every minute detail concerning expenses, which is why I'll have many, many articles. The advantage is that if you get to the point you aren't on minimum wage through promotions or new jobs, you will be able to create wealth much faster, as you have the fundamentals down that few middle class people do.

Actually republicans won because a lot of Obama voters just stayed home, which makes sense, Obama has higher approval ratings than the overall Democratic party, nor did Obama campaign for these guys, so a lot of 2008 voters just didn't bother showing up.

Might this translate into gop victories in 2010 and 2012? 2010 possibly, 2012 not a chance, for 2010 it hinges on the economy, particularly unemployment, the ability of the parties to get out the vote and whether Obama campaigns for the Dems. Also a key factor is where the GOP is aligned in 2010, if they keep going right, even a bad economic situation may not help them in the general election.

2012 not a chance, because by then the employment situation will be much improved even pessimistic views of the economy expect most jobs to return by 2012, and presidential approval and employment have a strong correlation, and Obama will be back at the top of the ticket, even now, Obama has positive job approval ratings, by the time 2012 rolls around and the economy is in full recovery, his approval will be higher.

Also another reason why 2012 will be a dem year, the GOP favorites for the 2012 election are Huckabee, Palin and Romney, none of them are liked by the overall electorate only Republicans, and they'll have to drift very right to get the GOP nomination, allowing the Dems lots of fodder to use against them in the general election.

LMFAO. Funniest post in VGChartz history.

Even if the Obama supporters came out the loss of the independents would have made it nearly impossible for the Democrats to win those elections ...

Obama carried the independents in a large part because he offered the hope of a post-partisan Washington, and (realistically) what has been delivered has been a government with as much (or potentially more) partisan bickering as any government that has come before hand.