4 ms·

There are a few reasons that poor people remain poor. Math: The fact is that it's much more difficult to make $10,000 from nothing than it is to make $1M when

There are a few reasons that poor people remain poor. Math: The fact is that it's much more difficult to make $10,000 from nothing than it is to make $1M when you have $1B to use. Experience: When you're poor, the odds are very good that you don't know anyone who is successful(let alone "rich") so there isn't the chance to find out what it takes to be successful. Plus, when you have no experience you need to work your way up from nothing. If you come from a rich family, odds are you know people who are willing to take a chance on you based on the references you have. Mindset: I came from a very poor family. I always assumed that I would start work at some horrible entry level job, and work my way up. That's what everyone in my family had done. It never occurred to me that there was another way until my mid 20's. Now I'm approaching 30 and I feel like I'm finally on my way to working for myself.

jeffool 15y ago
I'm with you. I'm now 30 and in debt from trying to "do things they way they're done," which is what I was taught. I actually think that's probably the larger reason (though certainly raw resources like money don't hurt.)
etaty 15y ago
Poor people need to work for tomorrow. No failure accepted. Rich people invest in their future. Failure is ok.
- afterburner 15y ago
  Yes. The poor can accept no risk, and can't even leverage on a safe bet. The rich can do both, multiple times.
hessenwolf 15y ago
Gentleman, when I first started Reynholm Industries, I had just two things in my possession: a dream... and 6 million pounds. Today, I have a business empire, the like of which... the world has never seen the like of which. Hope it doesn't sound arrogant when I say... that I am the greatest man in the world!
evangineer 15y ago
Economist Samuel Bowles and his colleagues have found the single most important determinant of economic success in America is "one's choice of parents". I blogged about Bowles & his work here: http://londoncreativelabs.com/blog/2010/3/28/insights-into-economic-inequality-and-job-creation-from-samu.html http://londoncreativelabs.com/blog/2010/3/28/insights-into-e...
ekanes 15y ago
Actually you can make $10,000 from nothing weeding or mowing. Of course, you have to be willing to do hard things like get rejected door to door, but it's extremely possible.
- krschultz 15y ago
  If 'nothing' == 'buying a lawn mower, a truck, a trailer, and a weed wacker' then you'd be correct. Although I'm not sure which part of the the Bronx you think I should setup my mowing business in because the last time I checked, there isn't any grass.
  - lionhearted 15y ago
    There was a great comment on here by Mahmud, I think, about how he used to make a few hundred dollars per day with a bucket of water and some sponges washing windows. It is possible to make money with work ethic and no capital.
    - omouse 15y ago
      By being a wage-slave, it's possible to make just enough money to live. Cool.
    - krschultz 15y ago
      I'm sure there are many ways to make money with no capital, I was responding to what I perceive to be the flippant 'if only poor people just WORKED, they wouldn't be so damn poor' mentality. A hell of a lot of people work their ass off and are still poor. I'll go further than that. Hard work doesn't actually correlate with salary. I know this becuase I have an incredibly easy job while my cousin busts his ass everyday at two jobs. He works more hours than me a week, and each of those hours is far harder, and one of his jobs actually involves risk of personal injury. All of them are outside in the heat. He gets pissed off at me because he works so hard and I seem to not have to work at all, but at the end of the day, hard work is not a recipe for sucess. He does stuff that plenty of other people are willing to do, while I do stuff that a lot of people never bothered to learn (at some point, they probably decided that they 'didn't like math' and closed the door for themselves). Hard work is a necessary but insufficient condition for sucess. Yes, you have to work your butt off in order to suceed; but you can toil everyday and get nowhere very easily. You have to work hard on the right things in order to get ahead. That realization has a lot of implications. One of them is relevant for this conversation: working hard may or may not lift you out of poverty. You can't extrapolate from "he lives in poverty" to "he isn't working hard". I've worked at a McDonalds, I've pumped gas, I've mowed lawns. All of those jobs were significantly harder than what I do today, and all of them paid barely enough to support myself, much less work towards a better future. You could work full time at McDonalds and then put in an extra 20 or 30 hours a week at another minimum wage job, and not get ahead. Or you can work full time at McDonalds and go to a vocational school at nights and probably get ahead. They are both equally hard work, but one will likely lead you to a better life and one won't. But that doesn't mean the people in the first group aren't working hard.

jeffool 15y ago

I'm with you. I'm now 30 and in debt from trying to "do things they way they're done," which is what I was taught. I actually think that's probably the larger reason (though certainly raw resources like money don't hurt.)

etaty 15y ago

Poor people need to work for tomorrow. No failure accepted. Rich people invest in their future. Failure is ok.

afterburner 15y ago
Yes. The poor can accept no risk, and can't even leverage on a safe bet. The rich can do both, multiple times.

hessenwolf 15y ago

Gentleman, when I first started Reynholm Industries, I had just two things in my possession: a dream... and 6 million pounds. Today, I have a business empire, the like of which... the world has never seen the like of which. Hope it doesn't sound arrogant when I say... that I am the greatest man in the world!

evangineer 15y ago

Economist Samuel Bowles and his colleagues have found the single most important determinant of economic success in America is "one's choice of parents". I blogged about Bowles & his work here: http://londoncreativelabs.com/blog/2010/3/28/insights-into-economic-inequality-and-job-creation-from-samu.html http://londoncreativelabs.com/blog/2010/3/28/insights-into-e...

ekanes 15y ago

Actually you can make $10,000 from nothing weeding or mowing. Of course, you have to be willing to do hard things like get rejected door to door, but it's extremely possible.

krschultz 15y ago
If 'nothing' == 'buying a lawn mower, a truck, a trailer, and a weed wacker' then you'd be correct. Although I'm not sure which part of the the Bronx you think I should setup my mowing business in because the last time I checked, there isn't any grass.
- lionhearted 15y ago
  There was a great comment on here by Mahmud, I think, about how he used to make a few hundred dollars per day with a bucket of water and some sponges washing windows. It is possible to make money with work ethic and no capital.
  - omouse 15y ago
    By being a wage-slave, it's possible to make just enough money to live. Cool.
  - krschultz 15y ago
    I'm sure there are many ways to make money with no capital, I was responding to what I perceive to be the flippant 'if only poor people just WORKED, they wouldn't be so damn poor' mentality. A hell of a lot of people work their ass off and are still poor. I'll go further than that. Hard work doesn't actually correlate with salary. I know this becuase I have an incredibly easy job while my cousin busts his ass everyday at two jobs. He works more hours than me a week, and each of those hours is far harder, and one of his jobs actually involves risk of personal injury. All of them are outside in the heat. He gets pissed off at me because he works so hard and I seem to not have to work at all, but at the end of the day, hard work is not a recipe for sucess. He does stuff that plenty of other people are willing to do, while I do stuff that a lot of people never bothered to learn (at some point, they probably decided that they 'didn't like math' and closed the door for themselves). Hard work is a necessary but insufficient condition for sucess. Yes, you have to work your butt off in order to suceed; but you can toil everyday and get nowhere very easily. You have to work hard on the right things in order to get ahead. That realization has a lot of implications. One of them is relevant for this conversation: working hard may or may not lift you out of poverty. You can't extrapolate from "he lives in poverty" to "he isn't working hard". I've worked at a McDonalds, I've pumped gas, I've mowed lawns. All of those jobs were significantly harder than what I do today, and all of them paid barely enough to support myself, much less work towards a better future. You could work full time at McDonalds and then put in an extra 20 or 30 hours a week at another minimum wage job, and not get ahead. Or you can work full time at McDonalds and go to a vocational school at nights and probably get ahead. They are both equally hard work, but one will likely lead you to a better life and one won't. But that doesn't mean the people in the first group aren't working hard.