Are You Better Off?

[Arab Nights (imported)]

I have a question for the older folks here.

Once upon a time we all went to work for a big company and ground away there until retirement. People actually had their own offices, health insurance and (quite honestly) fuckoff time. People got to conferences and meetings paid for by the company.

Today I find life much more interesting with a lot more opportunities, but I have to admit that it gets a bit old when the opportunities disappear like they have in the last six months. Even in the good times you have to always be looking over your shoulder or looking for the next opportunity. Definitely not like 20 or 30 years ago when you just went to work.

Since we have a cross-section of blue and white collar and peoples from different lands, I would be curious how individuals feel about the changes of the last decades. This is not a political question tied to a particular party or President, but a general question.

[A-1 (imported)]

Am I better off?

Hell NO! I am getting old. But, as far as work goes, I am happy and contented.

Sure, I could do better, but I would just rather spend the last 10 or so years of my working career doing what I am doing.

We make our own opportunnities, we always have and always will. IF you demand a better lot in life eventually you will get it.

But it takes time...

[transward (imported)]

We make our own opportunnities, we always have and always will. IF you demand a better lot in life eventually you will get it.

But it takes time...

There were a lot of Jews and Gypsies in the holocost, Palestinians today, Rwandans, Darfur residents and many more who demanded a better lot in life and got less than nothing. And many who did nothing to earn it who were handed the riches of the world on a silver platter.

In a world when millions, who did everything they were supposed to do, have lost everything, some ending up hungry and homeless, this kind of idiot optimism is quite annoying.

Transward

[A-1 (imported)]

There were a lot of Jews and Gypsies in the holocost, Palestinians today, Rwandans, Darfur residents and many more who demanded a better lot in life and got less than nothing. And many who did nothing to earn it who were handed the riches of the world on a silver platter.

In a world when millions, who did everything they were supposed to do, have lost everything, some ending up hungry and homeless, this kind of idiot optimism is quite annoying.

Transward

IT is ALWAYS idiotic to those who do not understand business and how money is made.

The Holocaust caught a lot of people unawares. There are ways that one can better their lot in life, but they first have to put themselves into a position where it might be possible. It is hardly possible in a gas oven and it is almost as hard in some countries in the world of today.

Realize that Palestinians are dying for their inability to change and leave if necessary. The Palestinians are a proud people. I am not saying that Israel is correct, I am saying that they are powerful and aggressive and that the Palestinian can make it in a free country, such as America, or similar countries because there is nothing wrong with Palestinians or with being a Palestinian. Understand?

Those of the other countries that you have mentioned that are poor may also better themselves.

The optimism that I possess is, perhaps, unique to Americans. It may appear idiotic lunacy to HOPE, but that is the first step. You must BELIEVE that it is possible, or it will never be possible.

The second step is to learn a way to make money and to keep making it without spending a lot and investing money wisely because money can WORK and make more money.

The third step is to work your ass off, but do it ETHICALLY and cautiously.

That, my friend, is the way that most people who have money made their money and if they inherited money all that they have to do is the second and the third step to keep it.

P.S., if the world enters a depression, the rich of today may well find themselves hungry and homeless, but they will get money again because they know it is possible and they have experienced it personally.

In this world there is ABSOLUTELY no substitute for a positive attitude.

[transward (imported)]

IT is ALWAYS idiotic to those who do not understand business and how money is made.

The optimism that I possess is, perhaps, unique to Americans. It may appear idiotic lunacy to HOPE, but that is the first step. You must BELIEVE that it is possible, or it will never be possible.

The second step is to learn a way to make money and to keep making it without spending a lot and investing money wisely because money can WORK and make more money.

The third step is to work your ass off, but do it ETHICALLY and cautiously.

I don't exactly disagree with you, but none of this is sufficient for success. Many who do these things fail anyway. Yes they may increase the probability of profit, but even still much comes down to dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time. Bill Gates was brilliant and well prepared, but much of his sucess was the result of another software genius being unavailable when IBM was looking for him.

"

That, my friend, is the way that most people who have money made their money and if they inherited money all that they have to do is the second and the third step to keep it.

"

These days there seems to be a lot of people running around who have become wealthy beyond most of our wildest dreams by destroying the world's economy and other peoples wealth,

P.S., if the world enters a depression, the rich of today may well find themselves hungry and homeless, but they will get money again because they know it is possible and they have experienced it personally.

In this world there is ABSOLUTELY no substitute for a positive attitude.

I think Solomon had it right around 2600 years ago.

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

For man also knoweth not his time; as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them."

Of course Nick the Greek (probably, the quote is variously attributed)also had it right "The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong but that's the way to bet?"

[transward (imported)]

IT is ALWAYS idiotic to those who do not understand business and how money is made.

The optimism that I possess is, perhaps, unique to Americans. It may appear idiotic lunacy to HOPE, but that is the first step. You must BELIEVE that it is possible, or it will never be possible.

The second step is to learn a way to make money and to keep making it without spending a lot and investing money wisely because money can WORK and make more money.

The third step is to work your ass off, but do it ETHICALLY and cautiously.

"That, my friend, is the way that most people who have money made their money and if they inherited money all that they have to do is the second and the third step to keep it."

P.S., if the world enters a depression, the rich of today may well find themselves hungry and homeless, but they will get money again because they know it is possible and they have experienced it personally.

In this world there is ABSOLUTELY

no substitute for a positive attitude.

I don't exactly disagree with you, but none of this is sufficient for success. Many who do these things fail anyway. Yes they may increase the probability of profit, but even still much comes down to dumb luck and being in the right place at the right time. Bill Gates was brilliant and well prepared, but much of his sucess was the result of another software genius being unavailable when IBM was looking for him.

These days there seems to be a lot of people running around who have become wealthy beyond most of our wildest dreams by destro

ying the world's economy and other peoples

wealth, so I'm not sure most of the rich earned it.

I think Solomon had it right around 2600 years ago.

"I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

For man also knoweth not his time; as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them."

Of course Nick the Greek (probably, the quote is variously attributed)also had it right "The race is not to the swift nor t

he battle to the strong but that's the way to bet?"

Transward

[ramses (imported)]

I don't believe dumb luck is the root of success. People succeede because they are prepared when they meet opportunity and are prepared when they have problems.

If you manage your money well and have it to invest when you hit an opportunity (plus hard work and brains).If you have no savings or other resources and your transmission goes out, you may not be able to get to work, then you loose your home and maybe everything else.

THe only people that get rich off of blind luck were playing the lottery. Bill Gates had himself ready for the challenge and had put himself in a position ready to strike when the opportunity presented itself.

[theGelded1 (imported)]

Bill Gates also knew how to write a contract to his advantage. When he sold his first operating system to IBM he had it so he was paid for every computer IBM made instead of every computer IBM installed his software on.

Shows the successful know how to take control of a given situation and bend it to their advantage.

[A-1 (imported)]

Bill Gates also knew how to write a contract to his advantage. When he sold his first operating system to IBM he had it so he was paid for every computer IBM made instead of every computer IBM installed his software on.

Shows the successful know how to take control of a given situation and bend it to their advantage.

Bill Gates?

I think that the contract that you are talking about happened in 1994. The first one goes back much further than that (http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/mag ... _billgates).

In 1993 the FTC turned their investigation of Microsoft over to the Department of Justice and the legal actions began. Then, in 1994, when Gated pulled the one that you are talking about, it pretty much settled things and it was just a matter of waiting for the wheels of justice to roll.

If you look at this from the ethics standpoint Gates was obviously out to eliminate competition. Since he had accomplished this feat, the unfair business practice actions came from the contract that you referred to. The elimination of competition sort of thing is the first step that a business takes when they start to cross the line into Ethical no man's land.

When they take advantage of a company like he did with IBM with that contract they have arrived.

However, it is hard to feel sorry for IBM. It IS lonesome at the top...

[A-1 (imported)]

Dear Transward,

That is why it is written,

"...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kindom of Heaven..."

You see, there are much more than riches to this life. I always say that while it is true that money cannot buy happiness, it CAN go a long way to ease your suffering.

Ask yourself, If I want to eliminate the suffering of mankind, where would I put my money and how much would it take?

Sometimes the only way you can help people is by being a friend. Money helps but it is not the answer to easing suffering, either.

You see, money is not really real. Not now, not since the Silver and Gold standard was removed. But that is not important. What is important is life and helping people.

All of us are poor and needy in some way. It is just a matter of degree...

"I cried because I had no shoes, and then I saw a man who had no feet..."