4 ms·

There is a saying I really like: "The poor are poor because all of their choices in life suck." There are of course two completely different ways to read that

There is a saying I really like: "The poor are poor because all of their choices in life suck." There are of course two completely different ways to read that. I find that the first interpretation that jumps out at people speaks volumes about their world-view.

kstenerud 15y ago
Yep. The self-made man would say it a certain way, and the sad truth is that most people lack the mix of ambition and discipline to look for, find, and work on ways to change their situation. For every rags-to-riches story there are a million rags-to-rags stories to match. Another person here mentioned people using check cashing services instead of service-charging banks. You know, as opposed to shopping around for a smaller bank or credit union that doesn't do that (another thing strangely lacking as an option in the game). What makes this even more pathetic is that the bank charge is usually LESS than the 3% they are paying from their paycheck to the check cashing service! Top it off with the tendency for poor people to withdraw small amounts of cash from ATMs and take the service charge hit (which, since it's a fixed price, increases the percentage loss the lower the amount you take out) and you can't but shake your head in disbelief. And don't even get me started on the massive amounts of money stupid people spend on lottery tickets... It's little things like this that make (and keep) people poor, and these things are so easy to avoid with a little planning and discipline. Wealth is a long term strategy that few consider seriously. And once you have wealth, you need to protect it from your grandchildren, because it's a well known phenomena for the first generation to make the money, the second generation to keep the money, and the third generation to piss it away. Not to mention the incredibly stupid modern practice of splitting the inheritance between your children rather than passing it in its entirety to ONE child.
- mkjones 15y ago
  > Not to mention the incredibly stupid modern practice of splitting the inheritance between your children rather than passing it in its entirety to ONE child. I'm not sure if this is a troll. What is incredibly stupid about the common practice of splitting inheritance equally between your children? What do you propose as a more optimal way to choose the single child who receives everything?
  - danssig 15y ago
    My guess is he must be the firstborn. I can't think of any other way that sentence makes sense.
    - kstenerud 15y ago
      Actually, I am the second born. I am making my own way.
  - kstenerud 15y ago
    There is a word in Japanese "tawake", which means "stupid"　or "foolish", but the literal translation is "splitting the rice field". Every time you split your fortune, it becomes far less powerful. As generations pass, your "fortune" splits and splits until you've got a bunch of insignificant sums among your descendants. This is why the powerful families choose ONE child who will receive the inheritance, while the rest must make their own way. The common practice is for the firstborn to take the inheritance, but the best practice is to wait and see how each of your children deal with money before deciding.
larrywright 15y ago
Which interpretation do you think is the truth?
- noonespecial 15y ago
  Like most truth, its not a binary choice, but a continuum along which individuals fall. (But that doesn't make for a very lively discussion, now does it?)

kstenerud 15y ago

Yep. The self-made man would say it a certain way, and the sad truth is that most people lack the mix of ambition and discipline to look for, find, and work on ways to change their situation. For every rags-to-riches story there are a million rags-to-rags stories to match. Another person here mentioned people using check cashing services instead of service-charging banks. You know, as opposed to shopping around for a smaller bank or credit union that doesn't do that (another thing strangely lacking as an option in the game). What makes this even more pathetic is that the bank charge is usually LESS than the 3% they are paying from their paycheck to the check cashing service! Top it off with the tendency for poor people to withdraw small amounts of cash from ATMs and take the service charge hit (which, since it's a fixed price, increases the percentage loss the lower the amount you take out) and you can't but shake your head in disbelief. And don't even get me started on the massive amounts of money stupid people spend on lottery tickets... It's little things like this that make (and keep) people poor, and these things are so easy to avoid with a little planning and discipline. Wealth is a long term strategy that few consider seriously. And once you have wealth, you need to protect it from your grandchildren, because it's a well known phenomena for the first generation to make the money, the second generation to keep the money, and the third generation to piss it away. Not to mention the incredibly stupid modern practice of splitting the inheritance between your children rather than passing it in its entirety to ONE child.

mkjones 15y ago
> Not to mention the incredibly stupid modern practice of splitting the inheritance between your children rather than passing it in its entirety to ONE child. I'm not sure if this is a troll. What is incredibly stupid about the common practice of splitting inheritance equally between your children? What do you propose as a more optimal way to choose the single child who receives everything?
- danssig 15y ago
  My guess is he must be the firstborn. I can't think of any other way that sentence makes sense.
  - kstenerud 15y ago
    Actually, I am the second born. I am making my own way.
- kstenerud 15y ago
  There is a word in Japanese "tawake", which means "stupid"　or "foolish", but the literal translation is "splitting the rice field". Every time you split your fortune, it becomes far less powerful. As generations pass, your "fortune" splits and splits until you've got a bunch of insignificant sums among your descendants. This is why the powerful families choose ONE child who will receive the inheritance, while the rest must make their own way. The common practice is for the firstborn to take the inheritance, but the best practice is to wait and see how each of your children deal with money before deciding.

larrywright 15y ago

Which interpretation do you think is the truth?

noonespecial 15y ago
Like most truth, its not a binary choice, but a continuum along which individuals fall. (But that doesn't make for a very lively discussion, now does it?)