catatonic

I hav eneighbors that do the same thing you are experienceing Koffee....only difference is this apartment complex is full of college brats...go figure, first few years away from mommy, and they feel the urge to be complete jacktards.

...I had to deal with a beer bottle completely filled of a mystery fluid in the lelvator monday morning...I really don't want to know what it was....either snuff spit, or piss...at least they kept it bottled I guess

InfamousG

This thread reminded of this:


More

Mphetameme

I read that and thought "Yeah!! It's those Hybrid and Comfort cycles!!"

Then I read the rest of what you wrote. Dude, you need to use a new word for "cycles" in this forum.

DannoXYZ 

I'm talking about a group that's done well. It takes a whole family and group of supporters in teachers, friends and mentors to bring up a kid that's going to be prosperous. FAMILIES are what creates long-term wealth across generations. Sure, you may consider it luck that someone was born into a certain family with certain background and training. You gotta get out of you head and stop thinking about the individual as an isolated island all the time: me, me, me, me!!!

No, it's the FAMILY has put a tonne of work, blood, sweat, tears and hard-labour over generations, hundreds of years to create the kinds of thinking and attitudes that allows the latest generation of kids to be prosperous. They've had to develop methods of passing on their wealth, of passing on their knowledge, of training their kids in the right attitudes of thinking in abundance, public-school's certainly not gonna do it. I'm gonna do my part for my family too by really getting involved in my kids' education and financial-training as well, they aren't gonna be "lucky". Also the old-ways are a minority, the number of 1st-generation millionaires in this country outnumber those who've inherited their fortunes. The opportunities nowadays are more abundant than ever!

In many ways, being broke and having to struggle to make ends meet, begging for food & handouts, really teaches you that you don't want to be poor. Makes you work that much harder at educating yourself and learning ways to be as beneficial as possible to society and your fellow man. Remember, the more people you help and the more value your contribution to them, the more money you make. Money is just the side-effect, the end-product result at the end of the line, it shows you've done a good job beforehand (kinda like keeping score). It's not the motivating factor going into things. If you're looking for ways to make money, and make lots of it fast, and that's your intent going into things, it's not gonna work, you're going to come across as a fast-talking used-car salesman, no one's interested in that.

Oh yea, and live life to the fullest, do the things you enjoy and do what inspires you. You never know when your last day's gonna come around. So even if you don't end up making billions and billions of dollars in the end, you could at least look back and say your time was well-spent, you've had a loving nurturing family and close friends.

BTW - saying people who have money are lucky or got that way through luck is like saying Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods got to the top of their fields through being lucky. Sure, you may be born with a certain genetic potential, but it's not going to make you a star if you don't work at it. That's discounting all of the hours and hours of daily practice, decades of hard work, and tiredless devotion to their goals regardless of what obstacles life throws at them.

gmoneyhobbit

STEREOTYPER STEREOTYPER STEREOTYPER


RACIAL PROFILER

SEGREGATOR

this is why we have so much chaos right now within our cities, people hate other people.

shokhead

I never used the words caring,kind or compared them to rich people,better read op again.

shokhead

I never used those words and never compared to rich people,read op again.

shokhead

Maybe i should reask,why does a poor area of a city have to be run down and dirty. Rich or poor,you keep you house clean,care what your kids are doing and teach manners. Seems less of that is in the part of the city i work in and yes,i've tried for over 20 years to help but after getting sh$t for thanks you start to get a bit run down.

shokhead

I typed well enough for you to read so dont worry about my typing.

shokhead

I typed well enough for you to read so dont worry about my typing.

shokhead

Sounds good but its wrong. We fight with the parents to much to help them. I'd say on avg at least 1-2 times a week a parent comes into the office and says something like,where's the b$tch that made my child stay after school. Had 2 girls get caught in the bathroom with pot{5th graders} all the parent of one of the girls said,your going to kick her out of this school for that? Your kidding,right? Had about 20 parents protest because there kids were sitting on the playground resting after running the mile. They dont want them doing either. Parents come to school drunk,in PJ's,braless in tanktops,cussing out loud,this is everyday stuff. You try that for a few years but our test scores have gone up the last 5 years. Teachers work there a$$ off and care about each kid but you can only do so much at school when nothing is being done at home. We have had parents cuss out the clerk on the phone because we dont change diapers,go figure.

shokhead

Thats what i'm talking about but it seems i'm the devil for asking the question,why is it like that?

wfin2004

My wife and I just purchased a house in a new subdivision south of Tampa. We lived in the "city" and wanted so badly to leave what you have described. We paid 250 grand for a nice house in deed resticted community of new homes hoping for what you look for as well. Both sides of us now have "hillbillies" (rednecks here in FL) living as they did where they came from. Bar-B-Ques in the driveway on the tailgates of pick up trucks, beer drinkin' and hoopin and hollerin. I just don't understand because middle class can be and act just as poor people do in their homes. It is like moving the ghetto girls from the ghetto, they are still ghetto even living in the 'burbs. I have always said that being destitute and homeless is a sum total of life's decisions you have made. Why anybody needs three dogs chained up in back yard I'll never know. Driveway full of bikes, skateboards and everything else not listed in restictions that they can get away with. The Wife and I say when we sell we will walk a neighborhood at different hours to hear and see what is going on. How else can you do this? When you "look" at a property to purchase in the middle of the day and make an offer right then, who is to say the fireworks don't start till after 6 or so? Just my $0.02 worth

TexasGuy

Heh scary when Koffee and Me have some of the similar views on something

TexasGuy

Heh. Yeah, choosing a neigbhorhood is difficult. Definitely can't be rushed. At least when you're buying a home you can usually do more research and observation then when purchasing an apartment.

TexasGuy

Because people don't understand the term "context". They think that because you used a word you're depicting every version / definition of the word. They feel that because you're isolating a certain group, regardless of their crimes, or what not that you're evil
Or maybe they live in these neigbhorhoods and think that you're talking about them. Or maybe they're just extremely lkiberal/socialistic. There are truly some people in this world that think that every single penny I make should go to welfare so that others can live without working. *shrugs*. I say we go get our own island and mandate IQ and sense-of-humor tests

DannoXYZ 

I concur, I've already picked out my island: Tetiaroa

You're facing an uphill battle... some of the best and most caring teachers I've seen are in poverty-stricken neighborhoods. Not only do you have to be a teacher, you have to be a parent and raise the kids as well. You're frustrated because you have to deal with the aftermath, the results, and it's really too late by that point.

The causes of all this is the attitude of the parents. Not caring, not being meticulous and paying attention to details, not being involved with their kid's development, not being committed to their own personal goals are the real causes of their situation. Being poor is just one result of that kind of attitude about life (big generalization, but 80/20 Parado principle applies here).

TexasGuy

Neat, any idea where they are on this project, link is a year old.
Yep, too many people fail to realize this and think that everybody else should throw away their lives and money to try to improve these peoples' lives, or if you're not a part of the solution you're a part of the problem. They just don't realize that in America in 2005 these people have lives 10000 times better then the lives for the last 18 Millenia.

TexasGuy

And mentalities like that are a part of what cultivates the communities that we are talking about. I'm sorry but you make of life what you make of it. I may not be Bill Gates, but to those people in my life who I have taught how to read, whom I help, I mean something to those people. As for being rich, work hard, invest wisely, and do something ingenius. I have been working nearly 10 years of my life to get where I am now. And I'm here now

alanbikehouston

My job involves working with teenagers who primarily come from very low income families. I often visit their homes. What continues to shock me after a couple of decades of this work is the difference between public/shared areas of a low income neighborhood and the interior of their homes.

Generally, the shared/public areas are filled with trash, broken beer and wine bottles, discarded crack pipes, used diapers...filthy, filthy, filthy. Yet, it is a different world once I enter someone's living room. Almost always neat as a pin. The parents or grandparents are outspokenly strict about their standards: "Billy...get your feet off that sofa before I..." And, that sofa may well have a plastic cover on it to keep it looking like new.

One family I visited lived in a home where you could see daylight coming through the roof. Holes in the floor. Missing windows. Yet, everything in the home was neat, organized, and clean.

The only explanation I can think of is that poor families make a very sharp distinction between what is their EXCLUSIVE property, versus something that belongs to "them". And, their contempt for "them" and whatever "they" own is boundless.

When my nephew was age two or three, I would take him to public parks that had good playground equipment for his age group. And, I would bring gloves and trash bags and pick up the broken bottles and trash that were in the park. If someone threw a dirty diaper on the ground (a common sight in my neighborhood) I'd walk over and throw it in the bag.

Often, some adult would ask "Why the heck are you cleaning this park? This is not YOUR park". My answer was "Of course it is my park...and I want my nephw to enjoy a clean park".

We have an outdoor concert hall in Houston where folks can sit on a hill with a picnic basket and enjoy plays, musicals, and other shows. After the Polish festival or German festival, or after an opera, the crowd leaves, and the hill is spotless. After a blues or R & B show, the hill is covered with empty bottles, broken glass, chicken bones, napkins...a hill of trash. I sometimes suggest to the family sitting next to me: "Why not take those empty bottles home with you?" The answer is often obscene, but more often is "THEY will clean this up".

The belief that "THEY" own everything and that "THEY" are responsible to clean public and shared areas is a cardinal belief in poor communities. If poor folks understood that "WE" own everything and "WE" must keep everything clean, life in the inner city would be far more pleasant.

TexasGuy

Well at least you haven't given up. I've pretty much all but given up. I almost never attend conerts and festivals because I don't care to see people like that.

shokhead

Yep,a little luck but more of what you say. I've been at it since i was 13 and i'm 53 now. Another problem is and ill give you an example. Got a house and 2 cars and doing ok. Sister in law comes over and says,i want a bmw. I ask why? Because i'll look good in it. She dont work. Dad already bought her a car,she tricked him into it,he's abit touched in the head. I tell her to get a job. She says its no fair we both have cars. The younger gen dont see the work to get it,only the end result and they only want the end at a snap of the finger.

DannoXYZ 

Meaning is subjective, a small black dot on yard of white canvas may mean something to the artist that created it, but how much value and benefit that will create in someone else's life is questionable. My work is just an expression of my purpose in life; to help people. Whatever that takes. I went to school to be a doctor, I've started a computer-biz, open an internet-cafe, worked in bike-shops, wrote software for bike-shops, taught adult-ed at city-college, gave lectures on all sorts of topics to all sorts of groups, worked on international programmes with DRI and Rotary, did mail-order Porsche upgrades, done financial-planning, etc. I don't judge my work's worth through my eyes, but rather on the impact it makes on the other side. It's the recepients of my work that determine its meaning, and I make sure that I do something that's valuable to them, not me.

Yep, life is so multi-faceted, money is just one part. At an early age, I recognized that money was the opposite of time. Time being the most valuable thing we have, we're given only so much and once it's gone, it's gone forever, you can't make more, you can't buy more. Money is irrelevant, you can always make more. So at an early age, I vowed never to trade the most valuable thing I have, time, for money. My mum helped me with my very first investment, a single troy-ounce of gold, earned with an entire summer of delivering papers. That was 25-years ago!

Eatadonut

Find me an example of someone who REALLY worked/works to get out of poverty who doesn't succeed in making a decent life for themselves.

You need a redefining of the term "rich". I consider myself pretty darn wealthy, and I live on $450 a month.

shokhead

Its hard to have just a HS dip or less,6 or 7 kids and make it. I think most of us had kids we could afford. I stopped at 2 because i knew i couldnt give 3 or more enough support to be as good as they can be. Also college is killing me. I should have became a Mexican citiz and came back,i heard they are asking to have the usa pay for there kids college ed.