Look at success stories, BulbousHead. With the right investment, or an idea that takes off, you can start up a company. If you're lucky, you could start up a company in your garage that becomes a "315 lbs gorilla" in the industry. But..it would never happen if you don't try, if you don't put forth the effort.

Rags to Riches, the true American Dream..coming a home near you.

With the right investment

Requires money.

an idea that takes off

Requires idea. What percent of the population is made up of innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors?

you can start up a company

If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.

If you're lucky, you could start up a company in your garage that becomes a "315 lbs gorilla" in the industry

And if you're not lucky, then you're poor.

Rags to Riches, the true American Dream

That's exactly what it is: a dream.

Requires money.

Money can be found by finding investors. I also think the government provides aid to help start companies (at least according to that commercial with the Riddler guy selling his Get Rich Quick book).

Requires idea. What percent of the population is made up of innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors?

The wealthy. If a person only has the skills of a drone, do you honestly expect them to get a job beyond that of a drone?

If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it.

Everybody did do it during the dotcom era. I'm assuming it's as easy now to start a company, though not as lucrative.

And if you're not lucky, then you're poor.

A successful life depends on facing those risks.

That's exactly what it is: a dream.

It's a reality for many.

10 years ago I drove a chevette. Lived on an apartment $300 per month apartment and had an annual income >$10,000.

Today my net worth is in the 8 digit range. Hard work and sticking to things can definitely make a difference. Not that what I did can be reproduced, there's a lot of good fortunate involved too.

What people like Poet Philosopher state ignores the obvious: He states symptoms of being poor as opposed to what causes them to be poor. Not being able to afford transportation or child care or medical bills (I bet he hasn't read that book but jsut regurgitated Shipler's interview examples such as the mother whose son with Asthma had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance and couldn't afford the ambulance so her credit rating was wrecked) are all things AFTER being poor.

For instance, the mother who was too poor to afford the ambulance is a good example. a) She didn't set up with a payment plan? They do that in inner cities and I imagine elsewhere to. She's that poor? Why does she have children in the first place? Was she ever married? Where's the father?

But those questions muddy up the sympathy picture.

It's easy to feel sorry for the 20 year old mother who has bad credit becaue of not being able to pay for an ambulance to take her poor child to emergency and therefore has to pay high interest rates to buy a new car. As mentioned in Shipler's book.

But then you look closer. And questions arise. How many people do you know have to go to the hospital from Asthma? It's almost always because they ran out of medication. How did she let that happen? Medicaid pays for Asthma medication. And she owns her own home (which is described as "drafty" -- so are many homes, but let's keep the sympathy going). And then maybe it turns out that she didn't finish high school because she got pregnant with the cidl when she was 16 and the father took off.

So what is the lesson learned? That we need to throw more money at these problems? OR maybe, JUST maybe, people shouldn't get pregnant unless they're married already and can afford children. Don't people don't where babies come from? I didn't have children until my mid twenties. Why? Because I couldn't afford children. I woudl have loved to have kids when I was younger. But I couldn't afford it.

And btw, the company that owns this website, the company I founded by myself had zero investment. I didn't borrow a cent in its founding. I just worked my ass off. Rags to riches isn't a dream. But it does require a basic handle on decent decision making.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Brad (that you posted in my "comments" section.)

You have interesting articles too.

Definitely, there is a pattern here. Poor people with low life jobs are always quitting one and getting another for a while. This pattern is no different from when we were kids doing odds and ends dead-end jobs that we all hated. Try putting yourself in this scenario for a lifetime--depressing, as some cool blogger said McJob shit, and not easy to live with even when poorly educated. The best pattern is to upgade their pay regardless of the shit job and maybe they'll begin to feel like persons and try to better themselves in other ways, perhaps pursuing adult education in order to find a job they like. When you're uneducated and stuck with a job you hate and can't even live on it, it's pretty hard to get unthusiastic over finding a mate. 

I don't think finding a mate is particularly hard. Low-lifes in high school always managed somehow to score plenty.

There is the tragic poor: The girl who came from a broken family, got pregant at 16 because her boyfriend was the first person who showed any love towards her and now she's pretty much done. She's going to almost certainly be poor for the rest of her life. She's not a "loser" in my view. Just a tragic case. We should do what we can, as a society, to try to ease her burdens.

But it's a fine line between HER and this:

Same situation but girl has a SECOND child two years later with a different guy. Now she's officially crossed from being a tragic case to being a loser. The first time she made a mistake and has suffered the consequences. The second time demonstrates a distinct pattern of poor judgement.

But you can't help the first case without helping the second. I'm okay with that.

But there are so many types of losers to choose from. Guys make better losers because they're more obvious. There are plenty of guys out there who simply can't haul their asses out of bed come Monday morning. You can't keep a job if you don't have the discipline to show up on time every day. So they lose their jobs.  These same losers then compound their problems by doing things like maxing out credit cards, throwing money away on frivelous things, not paying bills (and destroying their credit), etc.

There are girl losers who you can spot too. The girl who decides to go to a job interview at an office with nose rings and eyebrow rings. Talk about putting yourself at a disadvantage. Girls also tend to be the ones who end up career students. I'm not sure what they're thinking. Girls will blow their time at college with bachelors in psychology or anthropology. Guys will blow their time in history, political science, or philosophy (bachelor degrees here mind you).  I bet if you took a survey of them, they'd be 90% Democrats.

BTW, the easiest way to NOT be poor is to try to avoid not fitting the criteria that the poor stick out in.

Single parent (usually never married), no high school, not working full time.

The three are usually interelated in their cause and effect.

Dude!  You just described my sister-in-law.  She has 3 bachelors degrees, is 28 and claims that she "can't" get a job teaching elementary school (her last degree).  However, if I were the one interviewing her, I wouldn't hire her, either.  Don't go in looking like a starving artist and think that they will hire you to be a role model for children.  Three bachelors degrees and the best she has done lately is work part time at a Mexican restaurant between two crack houses and claims that she (along with her 31 year old boyfriend) can barely afford to live (in their friend's house).  Sorry, the job market in this area is not *that* bad....... She's just lazy and relies on hand outs from family.  If she didn't have family that were willing (for who knows what reason) to support her, I am sure that she would be looking to the government.  She is already whining that they don't give her healthcare.  And, yes, she is a democrat.

I just want to fit in that "rich" category some day

To stories to illustrate the difference between winner and loser:

Girl A and Girl B have identical backgrounds. Niether are starting out with anything.

A starts out by taking any job she can get i.e. sweeping floors, scrubbing motel rooms, bagging groceries, waiting tables, etc. She saves all her money for college. Manages to get good grades in school and graduates without getting pregnant. She of course doesn't have enough to put herself through college but gets the rest from a small scholarship and student loans. A gets a degree, gets married and stays married. A lives a very happy, comfortable life forever after.

B doesn't think ahead of what she is going to do for the weekend. She gets pregnant by her first boyfriend who bolts as soon as he hears the news. B tries to make it on her own, gets low income housing and lives on welfare as long as she can. B decides she needs a man since otherwise she would have to get a job so she gets married, has another baby, lives in a crappy house, is unhappy and is considering divorce. Not very likely to live happily ever after.

I would say A is a winner and B is a loser. What differences do you see?

Thanks, Messy.. I don't have to reply to Bulbous now..You said it for me.

And Brad's right, too.. (I'm starting to hate saying that lol)

Alot of people who are rich and famous started out with some ridiculously small amount of money..Say, 20 dollars in their pocket.
But I will reply to this "Requires idea. What percent of the population is made up of innovators, entrepreneurs, and inventors?
First of all, I'd say almost everyone fits into those category with EFFORT.
Maybe I'm just giving too much credit to the human race.
-OR-
You're not giving the general public enough credit and you're stating that only a handful of people are smart enough to become somebody..and the rest of us are complete idiots incapable of rising to anything higher than knuckle-dragging jobs. You go Bulbous!

You're not giving the general public enough credit

My experiences with the general public give me little reason to have faith in it or give credit to it.

I have a lot of faith in the average person. Give people freedom and they'll do amazing things. I see it every day. People are basically good. And in my experience, nice people tend to do pretty well in life.

I wasn't arguing about the little faith in the public, alot of people never aspire to anything greater..even if they were capable, they don't realize it/do anything about it.

The only MAN keeping people down are themselves. Not corporations, the government, or even social standings. We are in charge of our lives, though it's so much easier to not be.

Many uneducated "jobless" people refuse to settle for less than 40K per year. They must feel their time and skills are more valuable than mine.

If I make 50K and my wife makes 50K, and we live in NYC, are we "rich"? Hell no. We would practically have to live on cat food.

The "unemployment" and "jobs" statistics are very misleading. The best indicator of the employment situation are want ads and positions open in private employment agencies.

Wise political leaders are in favor of education, marriage, and close faimlies. Statistics (thanks Brad) tell us why.

Just a little grist for the mill.