Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.
-Robert Orben
This wall street thing is driving me crazy. The birds wake each morning singing their birdy songs. They go about collecting food and building nests. The ants march to and fro... continuously, working, working, working. The bees buzz and collect and build and work, work, work. The elephants, whales, penguins, animals all over the planet trudge the yearly paths they must follow in order to survive. It takes work to get somewhere. I think that's a fact of life. Right???
I have one brother who's paid his way through a very nice college. He works long hours in an office where he's proud of his job and worked his way up from the factory floor. He lives in a very nice home, drives a very nice vehicle, and he's incredibly responsible with his income. His wife takes incredibly good care of the family, my brother, and their three gorgeous daughters (one of those Martha Stewart type moms). She also works part time (I believe) as a special needs teacher. They're not rich but they're prosperous and very responsible. They also love each other very much, spend tons of family time together, and know what's important in life.
I have another brother who just lost his home. He's had a difficult time holding down jobs. Either he quits spontaneously because he can't stand the job any longer or he's been laid off due to the economy. It's horribly judgmental but it's also the facts: he's not responsible with the money he earns. He lived in his home for practically a year without paying any sort of a mortgage or rent payment and when the day came that he HAD to move he went asking people if he could borrow some money to put down on the first months rent for the new place. He did have a fairly nice income for a vast majority of the time he lived rent free in the house he was losing. Why the heck didn't he have a down payment for his new place? If I lived rent free for a year I'd be LOADED! I love him. He's a great guy. He trys to be the best dad he can be. But he doesn't seem very happy and I don't think he sees past RIGHT NOW.
I remember writing about this earlier in the year. I wondered at the possibility of two types of people. The type that plans and looks ahead, and the type that has absolutely no regard for the future. The first type of person works hard because they know as a fact of life that's what needs to be done. They plan, they do what needs to be done, and life might not be easy but it's not a futile struggle. The second type, well I was there for quite a long while... they want, want, want, but don't look ahead and then the world crashes down around them because they refused to watch it falling down (and didn't want to put the effort into stopping it).
My world began to fall. I could have easily decided to stop paying "the stupid banks." I could have declared bankruptcy. I could have blamed them for my debt. After all HOW DARE THEY charge me the exorbitant interest that I AGREED to pay them when I borrowed their money. In fact I could have gotten pregnant years ago, divorced my husband (just for legality sake... we would have stayed together in this scenario) and gone to college for free, gotten free daycare, and free food. Oh, how wonderfully easy life would have been.
I think I ramble upon this subject a bit too often but I'm kind of angry about it. If you want something then WORK FOR IT! Your life is in your hands. My life is in my hands. I'm responsible for what happens along the path I choose to follow. Why should ANYONE else be responsible for you, I mean unless of course you're a baby who needs to be bottle fed and have his or her diaper changed for them.
If you want to be rich then do what it takes. If you're just mad at other people for being rich then you have a problem. Apparently there's something I'm not getting. I don't think it's the government or anyone else's for that matter responsibility to take care of me??? In fact I don't want "free" food or "free" school. I'm pretty sure food you actually work for tastes considerably better than the free stuff anyway.
I only spent $3.08 today : )
I get what you're saying, but the 1% are getting rich by making other people poor... think about all the banks who are charging fees on checking accounts. They are willing to hold our money, so long as we pay them to do so. It's greed, pure and simple. And the OWS protesters are trying to bring corporate greed into the light.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm wondering is if you don't like the way your bank is behaving can't you just stop using that bank? That's how the system is supposed to work. My bank doesn't charge fees for checking.
ReplyDeleteI really don't see how the 1% are making anyone poor. I really don't and this is coming from someone with a rather huge debt.
There's A TON of greed in this world but if you acknowledge it then wouldn't it best to walk away from it. For crying out loud a bank that's inflicting poverty on it's customers should be put out of business. Let the system work. Go to a credit union.
Apparently my wife and I are 1%ers. The 1% that believe, like yourself, that there is honor in working your ass off for what you have!
ReplyDeleteThe 1% are the ones providing jobs. Most 1% people were part of the 99% at one time. I don't think they wasted there time complaining about the 1% when they were part of the 99%.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy your blog and am right there with you. We will be debt free on 5/25/12 if all continues go according to plan. If one of us loses are job we will work doing anything we can. We've been at it since January 2009.
Keep it up!
Love your blog and I agree with you 100%. I will be debt free December 2012. My family will do this though sacrifice and hard work. I recently lost my job as a software engineer for a large company and am currently working full time at a coffee house. I am NOT out protesting... I am working. Life is hard. Don't complain about it, work harder!
ReplyDelete