Go Back to Germany...?

[

We have some nerve telling me that I don’t know what I am talking about. We bought a house in inner-city Brooklyn and when we first moved in we noticed there were hardly any garbage pick up, street cleaning and other services. When white gentrifiers moved in..suddenly we got services. We had clout!
What you basically saying is that “these people” are irresponsible. You Talk about your wife’s family working so hard and it sounds like you don’t believe that these parents who live in the “ghettos“ don’t work hard. I worked in inner-city Brooklyn and parents worked two and three jobs so don’t talk about lack of responsibility and I love how you use Oprah Winfrey as an example. She hardly represents the norm . Don’t assume that the poor lack any responsibility. I give prejudice workshops and one of them is the discrimination against the poor… Classism. Your stereotype just reinforces the prejudice
I have mentioned, my husband was a 10th grade dropout and retired in his 40s as a vice president at Smith Barney. But he would be the first want to tell you that if he hadn’t been white and male he never would have had the opportunities he had.

 

I have mentioned that I was lucky enough to write a book for teachers that has been a best seller for my publisher for almost 20 years. As a result of the success of the book my true desire came out. That is keynote speaking ( I am a closet stand up. )I have been doing this for over 15 years and what I have seen over these years is very disheartening. These dynamic people who are idealistic teachers or quitting. They say there is very little respect and they don’t get paid big bucks and a lot of them go into private industry. We better start paying teachers what we pay accountants and stockbrokers etc. or we are going to continue losing the best and the brightest. In the past women had few options so the best and the brightest went into teaching and now they’re going into professions that were once closed to them where they can make money
I Remember one year my husband got this ridiculous bonus and even though I was happy because it was for us there was a certain resentment because I felt my job is so important and paid so little. He looked at me and said, “I make money… You change lives” I felt better.

 

Working hard is only part of what is necessary to build a good life. You also have to think, work smart, vote and act for the right things- none of which is for someone to pick up after you. Politicians are elected by the people. If people demand reasonable service and are financially responsible in their demands. they can be done. When they want thing but won't cooperate or pay for them, politicians promise- but don't deliver. Corruption thrives because people are willing to buy BS that sounds good- comfortable lies, but object to uncomfortable truth.

Oprah doesn't represent the norm- and I didn't say she did. I stated she is an example of what can be done when you actually take responsibility for getting yourself out of poverty and into success.

There will always be poor, because there will always be people who feel sorry for themselves and blame others- waiting all their lives for someone to give them motivation, provide for them, make others pay for their needs. I don't discriminate against poor people- I do discriminate against people who have no ambition, no motivation, no self-respect, no character- and particularly those who won't accept full responsibility for themselves. Now- WHY? Because those things are what stands between them being strong, self-sufficient contributors to society- stand between their own , success their happiness- and the poverty they complain of. I want them to do well, to have good lives- but you can't give that to people. You can't gift it, legislate it, or in any way give a person personal values they don't want, and won't look into themselves to find. Now I find that a tragic loss of human strength and value- but the idea that they are not directly responsible because the job is hard.... that's BS. Hell yes it's hard, but the person put here to make them successful and put their interests first is in the mirror. Nobody else- it starts with the individual themselves.

IF people in that position want out, why on earth would they criticize those who have gotten out, or kept themselves out or are successful? If you were smart, they would ask the successful people how they did it. I've asked many very successful entrepreneurs to share the secrets of their success- and virtually all have. Of course, I asked with respect and showed appreciation rather than telling them they were "gentirfiers" or hanging trash on them first. When you do that, they know it's a waste of time to give you any guidance, and they won't because you have nothing going for you.

If you have been successful, congratulations. But you claim you worked hard to do that- so did I. The difference here is I know that the work and the education that comes with the effort and determination made that happen- while you seem to think that the world should just be fair and give you success because you are here. If that is true- I'd say you took the class, but failed the course.
That would mean you still don't know how to teach others to do as well or better, because after all- life owes us all. Now if you can just figure out who will pay, and how long it will take to run out of other peoples money before we all are in poverty, and nobody is left that has the smarts to do for themselves. .

 

You must think people are stupid. They know damn well what Trump is doing.

 

What disturbs me here is that you think that you don’t discriminate. How do you know which poor people worked hard? It’s easy to lump them together even though you say you don’t .Like thinking poor people should just get out of poverty as though it is so easy. I think the problem you and I disagree on is that you are using logic but lack psychological insight. I used my husband as then perfect example. The Poverty he came from was something I had never seen in my life and that includes the low income projects I taught in. But he was a white man and was never defined as inferior throughout history. He walked away from his home and he was just saying as another man. My husband was brilliant but never ever dreamt of going to college. It wasn’t in his reality. On the other hand in my world it wasn’t if I go to college , but which one
The money that you seem to begrudge the poor is a very small part of our budget.....You act as though they are living a great life with the food stamps that helps them eat. People on welfare are at the poverty level I wonder if you would like to live like that. And by the way so many of these “people you resent ” end up being quite successful. If only you cared as much as huge corporations not paying taxes as you resent the getting food stamps we would be a better country.
I Mentioned I do workshops in prejudice and there is so much unacknowledged prejudice here.

 

There are prosperous capitalist countries like Denmark that show there are ways to reduce poverty we've rejected. Denmark doesn't try to take money away from business, especially businesses exporting goods and services, but it does have higher personal taxes.

Discriminate in what way? When I was an employer, I didn't hire them, or if I made a mistake and did, I let them go. Was I discriminating against them? I don't think so.

What about people who have difficulty standing on their own--those too young, too old, or too sick? Or those simply not smart enough to compete? I think as a society we've let these people down.

As a teacher, I was confronted every day with the difference in the capacities of my students to compete. Those who have difficulties are constantly reminded of their shortcomings. They get discouraged, and there is little help from schools in understanding how to make the most of what they have.

 

They're frustrated, too, by the politicized, inappropriate curriculum and the far too often outright incompetent school management. You bet they're walking away.

Another nail in the coffin.

 

If they weren't stupid- they would have known what Clinton was doing, but they didn't.
All people have brains- but having a tool and knowing how to use it wisely are two different things.

 

A lot of people who supported Clinton knew what she was doing. We have people rationalizing support for a candidate as the lesser of evils. Fine, but I wish they would stop defending the bad behavior of their favored pol as a strategy to help them get elected.

 

"Which poor people worked hard". Do you understand the shortfall of working hard as the sole parameter?

If there are two adjacent piles of sand and two laborers, one on either side of the piles, both shoveling from their left pile to the right pile- absolutely nothing is accomplished. It's not just working- it's working smart, planning, budgeting, managing money, and most importantly- managing your own mental processes so that you have an objective, have a plan to reach it, and have enough self-discipline to follow the plan.

I had a friend- a black man who was a school janitor all his life, did not have a HS diploma. Hard worker, self-educated, strong family man. Smart guy. Had a plan early in life, saved money, taught himself how to invest. Sent all four kids to college and left an estate worth more than $1M, on a janitors salary.

Now there are courses on the internet that are free- on about anything you want to know. Critical thinking. How to weld. How to invest. How to budget, how to plan. Available to anyone who wants to learn- and accepts the responsibility for making something of themselves, instead of blaming others for not handing it to them.

Of course it's hard work. So what? Unless you also work smart- you aren't acting smart, and that is a choice nobody can fix but you. And, you will never fix it so long as you believe that others are responsible for your hardship, because you will have no power- and no motivation. ONLY when you accept that responsibility will you gain the power to change your life. It's personal, not something law or society can do for you.
Either a person steps up to the plate and does that- or they sit back and tell themselves they are victims. It's their choice.

 

What makes you think that poor people aren’t responsible? And the fact that you don’t understand that racism is alive and well and to use your janitor story which I do not believe for a minute, justifies your stereotype. As I said before you lack psychological insight into poverty. It is obvious you think that the poor can just motivate themselves and go to college and get educated. You do not understand the concept of hopelessness. Most people do try but meet with obstacles that you don’t know of . Will assume you are a white male

 

You didn't hire the unqualified or unmotivated. Many do indeed call that discrimination, including a lot of government powers.

Of course, there are people who cannot do for themselves, people in genuine need. Always will be. We are a most generous nation in caring for such people- but we seem to have a lot of trouble distinguishing between genuine need and deadbeats, career welfare queens and such. That keeps the entire process clouded with doubt and inefficiency- and most important, makes it carry a shame.... and while the undeserving aren't bothered by that, the ones really deserving the help are often too proud to take it and the label that goes with it. I'd like to see that fixed, but I don't know how it can be done- probably too many human variables involved.

While there are difference is capacities, I've found that nearly everybody has something they are good at and has good value. Worst mistake is trying to emulate rather than finding your own gifts. Of course there will be a few with no gifts so to speak, but that is a very small percentage compared to the rest. I agree that if the school systems were run with the right management, far more would find their strengths- but that question too (school systems) is plagued with human variables- including politics and short-sighted administration as well as poor parents.

There is no universal cure that will make everything work for everybody. If you wish to get some really high-quality evidence of how life works- take a look at nature. Millions of species of all sizes, capacities, intelligence and strength, have thrived for millions of years- without governments, schools systems, religions or any of the multitude of things humanity has invented to try and regulate itself. I've spent a lot of time in some of the purest natural environment on earth, looking at that, observing the harmony and balance, always asking myself the same question- What do these creatures know that we don't know? I eventually saw it, and I've lived by it half my life, and the principles are so simple I can write them on the back of a business card. It's made me successful at everything I do- with the exception of trying to teach others to see it.
You see, everybody wants the solutions to the problems of life to fit neatly into what they already think they know, and they measure new ideas with that existing standard- and reject conflicting ones out of hand.

An old friend once told me of a chinese proverb:
"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear". Absolutely true- and the teacher is always around us, waiting for us to be ready to learn. Most will never be ready.

 

So we will just continue to sing our "I can't" song, and blame the world for our terrible plight. We know that the world owes us an easier life, a better income, and on with the many verses that will keep any who embraces them in the bonds of self-pity for the rest of their lives.

You can and will believe whatever you want- and obviously you have no intention of being influenced by any example or experience to the contrary. That will insure that nothing will change- and obviously you will be happy with that.

It's an insult to ask success how to be successful, isn't it? After all, society owes that to us; it's a past due bill.
I understand you.

 

Your naïveté that anyone can be anything they want if they just try is not true,

 

Isn't that the responsibility of the Democrat mayor? Into whose pockets does the money go? I read the IRS is investigating Cummings' wife.

 

Of course you read that on your right wing sites. You also probably read that the IRS has been investigating Trump and maybe that’s why he won’t release his income tax forms. You know, the ones he said he would show. Cummings is my representative and he is one of the most honest men there is

 

What you don't understand is that thinking you can't is a far more powerful enemy than thinking you might and failing. Anybody can fail- the question is, do you learn, get up and try again? Or just whine about how difficult life is and feel sorry for yourself? Failing to try- guarantees you lose, every time.

 

Then there isn't any dog whistles.

 

I was willing to work with some a bit short on skills providing they were willing to learn. But there's a limit--I had shareholders who didn't hand over their money to a charity.

I'm not so sure we're a generous as we might be with people in genuine need, but we do hand out OPiuM (Other People's Money) to people who don't need or deserve it.

If you could come up with an approach, you probably could make a lot of money of your book.

I don't know about "good at" but I would suggest that they're "good enough at." As a teacher, I spent a lot of time getting students to look at what they were interested in and they thought they might be capable of doing. Then I showed them how to investigate their options and evaluate what they found.

True enough. All we can do, as a society, is provide capable people with opportunities and care for people who can't deal with life on their own.

Good line.

 

Cities are impacted by senior levels of government, so what are you saying?