but im sure they have a lot more drive and ambition than the average poor person does, because they were somehow able to succeed.
Drive and ambition are only part of the makeup, though. Luck, who you know, and other factors of that sort can factor in, too.
Not to make light of the poor persons' situation.....by any means at all....
Well, unfortunately, by saying things like the above about drive and ambition, that implies that poor people just don't work hard enough. And I just look at my parents and know that's not at all true. Certainly some fall into that trap, but many don't.
but i believe the financially successful people in the world will generally tell you they are the way they are because of hard work, desire, ambition, and more hard work. Also maybe they understand markets, business, networking, and are accomplished at getting things done.
Some of them, yes. But others, like the Trumps of the world, have done a lot of shady crap to get where they are, too, and that's where the problem starts. Add in the fact that they don't know when to stop when they get rich, there doesn't seem to be a wall where enough is more than enough, and that just makes it worse.
Im not a rich guy, im a hard working middle class person who might wish i were one of the wealthy. I live in a decent home, have good insurance, and drive a couple of nice cars.
See, and from my perspective, you're already doing better than my family. We have one car, which is older and beat up and has a driver's side handle that is busted and that we've had to put money into fixing up (and we got it for a few hundred dollars from a friend of my sister's, because that's all we could afford).
We're living in the top floor of someone else's house, in a little apartment, which we only found after having to stay at my sister's very tiny house (that can fit two people fine, but four's a lot) because it took forever to find anyplace in town within our family's price range, and we finally found this one because my family knew the family who owned it. And we make too much for public housing.
My mom's got decent insurance from her job. Not great, but decent. I on the other hand have none at all.
And I still consider us well ahead of where we've been in the past-living in motels, trailer park, sleeping in our car once, stuff like that. It is a definite upgrade and I have a roof over my head and can eat at night and such, and my family aren't big spenders, so we get by all right.
But it's still not even close to being considered proper "middle class" existence. And so when I hear things like what Mitt said, it bothers me immensely.
When i go places sometimes people will approach me in the parking lot and ask me for money. I give it to them when i have it. On some occasions they will then ask me to take them somewhere, in which i decline. Im not sure what happened to these poor souls to put them in the predicament that they are in, but there is only so much i can do. I won't judge them but i have my own responsibilities that have to come first, as harsh as that may sound. We have to help ourselves first, then we can try and be a Jesus.
I agree that you do what you can. One person giving money away won't solve every problem, and there's a ton of other factors involved, too. This problem won't fix itself overnight, and I'm certainly not naive enough to expect our government to come save me and my family at the drop of a hat. We're putting in as much effort as we can, too.
But I don't agree with that last line-I think it's possible to try and do both at the same time.
For 3 years we have had a President who has tried to get things done, with some success, but with just as many failures. I want him to succeed...but if we are still having this same conversation in 9 months then why should we give him another shot? Because we agree with him on social issues? Even though he hasn't really succeeded on turning things around....no. Sometimes you have to put aside your personal grievances (for instance, gay marriage) in exchange what is better for the whole (economy). I realize the GOP controlled Congress is the very definition of obstructionist, and are going to block everything the president tries to push through. If i could, i would fire everyone of them. However we are stuck with 3 more years of those assholes. And if we re-elect Obama then its possible were going to have 4 more years of not-getting-shit-done.
As a result things will probably stay the same. Or, it could get worse, higher unemployment, wrecked housing markets, etc. This President has done some really good things, like saving the auto industry, keeping us from a Depression, Killing Osama Bin Laden, just to name a few. He's also failed on several things...creating new jobs, fixing the housing mess, no balanced budget, record national debt...etc. I want to give him the chance but he's going to have to make the better argument.
I do agree with this. Obama is going to have to get tougher. If he has an idea that he knows will indeed benefit this country, and someone wants to try and block it, he should be more forceful and say, "No. This is a good idea. You have no legitimate reasons why it should not go ahead. So I'm going to put it out there/implement it. If the American people don't like it,
they are the ones I ultimately will have to answer to (and if the American people do like it, then the opposer will have to answer to us)." And he, or people who work for him, will need to do a much better job of explaining to the public why this idea or that he puts out is a good one and how exactly it will benefit everybody (and the media will need to help in that regard, too. I know some of the policy talk may not be "sexy" or "controversial" enough for headlines, but if it's good policy that helps us,
we need to know about it. Every last detail of it).
It's okay
. I may be getting a bit heated here, too, so I need to remember to keep my cool as well. When an issue touches people personally, it's tough to not let one's emotions get in the way of everything.
I will say now I swear any anger I feel is not at all a personal attack on anyone here. Just general frustration. At both sides. Please, do not get me wrong, people, the Democrats have their own set of problems, too. I'm not arguing that at all. Matter of fact, I saw an interview with Mark Foley earlier tonight where he talked about how some Democrats were noted to say, in his presence, "Oh, right, we have to cater to
them ("them" being the gay community), because that's what the Democrats want.", despite the fact that these particular Democrats were anti-gay rights. Foley said, "I'd much rather someone tell me to my face they hated me than pretend to like me and support me only to whisper about me behind my back." And I fully agree with that. That story really bothered me.
And now I'm rambling. *Shuts up and sits down and lets someone else talk*