if you dont think there arent neighborhoods like that then you havent been around much. crappy convenience stores like this are in blighted urban areas with no decent grocery store for miles. no frozen veggies that you are so big on. the produce was limited and complete crap and twice what it is at krogers. you are an exceptional person, martin. can you expect most people to be like you? if you want to argue that someone can stay healthy and thin in this environment you will get no arguement from me. but just because obama can become prez doesnt mean most people can. it has no value to argue about what is possible. the situation of many people (largely of their own doing) makes it more likely they will be fat and unhealthy. im not saying the gov should do anything or that these people arent to blame.
wrong. the place that you are describing does not exist. again, if i lived in these places i could find a way to eat healthy very, very easily. basicaly you are saying people exist that are too lazy to go to store and get food, instead eating pop tarts and slim jims. i know this person exists. this person is lazy and stupid and poor. but not even slightly is it true that they have no access. downstairs from me is a pizza place. and there is mcdonalds 200 yards away. if i chose to only eat these places, that doesnt mean other places are not available! it would only mean that i am lazy sack of lard. so you point is what i will call a "lasalle point" it is a non-point. some people are fat and lazy and they eat at the wrong places. if you concede that a person with a brain could eat better, like i can, then you have no point, except to remind us that fat people are lazy. we knew that.
they do exist, or at least have existed not too long ago. just south of downtown memphis for example. the projects are there and you had to over a mile in any direction to get to a market with any produce. and my point, as ihave already posted, is not what martin would do, but that this contributes to the poor being fat. if all these fatass housewives in the south are so fat when they can easily get to and afford great food --how much fatter would they be if they lived in downtown detroit?
wow a mile. who could ever cross such an enormous distance. are you even serious? i know. i can cover a mile in 5.5 minutes on foot. but these cats cant run like me. perhaps they have a bike. on a bike it must take at least 7 minutes to ride a mile, if you take it slow. but who could ever accomplish such a feat? i think the slowest walker in the universe takes how long to walk a mile? 16 minutes? perhaps they would be thinner for having to walk the sort of massive distances you are describing. stop the lies. fat people are lazy and they eat like lunatics. it has nothing to do with your nonsense. yes, they are lazy! i know they refuse to walk! its not that they dont have access! its that they are lazy sacks of lard. why would you blame anything but these fatties?
Ran across this this and thought you might find it interesting. Not to mention the thread needed to be stirred. :wink: The Decline of Inherited Money - The Wealth Report - WSJ
I'd like to see a stat on these rich people and where they came from, if they went to public schools, or private, if they were from the burbs, or poverty stricken areas. I can't remember who said it, but someone the other day was talking about how the American dream was to someday be a rich bastard if you work hard, and do the right thing. But what are your chances if you have to go through public school, which is totally underfunded, or grew up poor. How much more of a chance does say a kid who grows up in Highland Park have, than a kid that grew up in Oak Cliff? and i'm not saying it can't be done, before anyone claims that i am saying there is no way a kid from the hood can grow up to be rich. i'm wondering how much more of a head start does a kid that grows up in great area, and goes to private schools, etc etc.
another reason your point is stupid is that neighborhhods cater to their people, not the other way around. the reason farmers markets are in hipster neighborhhods in brooklyn and not the black neighborhood nearby is that hipsters like healthy organic vegan food and crap. poor fatties dont. they like purple drank and pop tarts. you could open a healthy store but nobody would shop there in poor fat neighborhoods. they dont want cauliflower, they want cheetos.
What I was posting was in response to the somewhat popular thought that most rich people didn't earn their wealth, which apparently isn't the case according to WSJ at the time this was published. If they weren't rich to begin with, then the point still stands no matter what type of schooling they had, i.e. - more created their fortunes than didn't. And of the rich's wealth, more of it was acquired by building it rather than inheriting it. As for your question, yes I'm sure the odds are stacked more so against a public-school graduate than private, but that's a different discussion. I've seen it first hand; I graduated from Istrouma High. That's when it comes down to things like parents' involvement in their kid's education. There's plenty of smart kids that flunk because A) their parents don't care enough to ride their ass about their education, or B) they're lazy because of option 'A', and don't take it seriously. Conversely, there are some pretty stupid and uneducated millionares out there too. Education isn't everything, if someone's not just a screw-up. Like you said, it's possible. One of my old teenage friends never finished highschool and got hooked on crack about 10-15 years ago. Everyone thought he'd be dead in no time. But he realized what he was doing wrong with his life, and fixed it. He's now living in a suburb in L.A. and knocking down about 200k a year before bonuses, and now walks as straight of a line as one can. He made that transition in about 5 years or so, and he's been great ever since. He didn't get lucky, he busted his ass to get it. Certainly, that's not the kind of wealth we're talking about, but making money like that is a good place to start building wealth. Especially when you were making zero before. Admittedly, Gumbo said 'of circumstance' so I guess the origin of peoples' wealth in that respect, could be subsumed.
Back to the original point of this thread. Why is it morally right to steal from someone and give it to someone else that did not earn it with the expectation that the recipient of this gift will vote for your party in the future? Bribery plain and simple. Vote for me and I will continue to send you a check.
