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Why are some people poor?

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Julia

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Looking around our society we see all levels of income and asset bases.

Why do you think some people never have any money while others on an apparently quite small income manage to achieve some assets?

Is it to do with our genes, the role modelling we receive while growing up,
our peer relationships, where we live, how much education we have had etc?

Or is it more a matter of attitude and ambition?

What other factors do you think come into our level of affluence?

Julia
 
I would say, that some people seem to better manage the same amount of money.

If amount is inadequate to provide for all needs, then it is inevitable to make sacrifices and inability or limited ability to do that, makes such a difference.

Having said that I think that % based income increases are laughable, when recently pollies gave themselves 7.5% of 150,000 (11,250) when pensioners got 4.5% of 15,000 (675) per annum.

We do this a number of times and we will talk different incomes for sure.
No wander increased number of people drop below poverty line.

How about we make increase $ based like $1000 per recipient, after all we’ve got the same digestive systems.
 
Hi Julia

I reckon its 'according to kind' and its anchored for the most part unconsciously by all that stuff you mention in your post.

Of course if most of us weren't so distracted and became conscious and realised the truth in Shakespeare's, 'All the worlds a stage and everyone is a player' you could change the script, the scenery and the characters.

Cheers
Happytrader
 
Some people never get a fair chance in the first place.

Stuff like getting sick at a young age, having parents that are disfunctional, all sorts of circumstances.
 
Not sure if anyone else has heard the theory that says that if all the world's wealth was split evenly amongst all the earth's inhabitants, that in less than 2 years, the same people would eventually end up with it all again.......

Money management would be the key at the end of the day.....and a bit of business acumen.
 
i think there many things that have an impact. education and personality type are the two biggest though IMO, education being parenting and schooling. when i was at school (i graduated high school in 2000 so not long ago) i wasnt taught a single thing about money, the closest was economics which was an elective that most students didnt do. parents pass on either their bad habits with money (if they are poor) or a lack of understand or respect for money (if they have a lot). but some people are just naturally conservative and careful with everything, including their money.

how can we justify not providing education on probably the biggest factor we will need to manage from mid teens right through to the day we die. money is responsible for the breakdown of a lot of relationships and may not buy happiness but lack of it creates a difficult environment for happiness.
 
I work with a bloke who buys his lunch every day, I take cut sandwiches and he calls me "carefull Carmo". My bank account is expanding, with him it's his waist.
 
It's this way because we have a system that rewards those that want to milk the system,those that work hard will be punished when retirement comes those that pissed their money on poker machines and drugs,grog,ect will be reward with a pension I have no problems with those that have a geniune need

cheers laurie
 
Happy said:
How about we make increase $ based like $1000 per recipient, after all we’ve got the same digestive systems.
Click to expand...

Brilliant, i like that...
 
One shouldn't underestimate the enourmous influense of luck in the aquiring of wealth.

There are alll the good things that people can do to set themselves up for wealth, then there is luck... or lack of.

I know a girl who though previously was not wealthy, who is now a cash millionaire, because someone with boxxes of cash sitting around the house in the US wanted her horse.

Shere luck.
 
How's this for a story... bad timing, bad business, or bad luck?

I used to be in the furniture manufacturing game. One of my contemporaries was a Polish immigrant who came to OZ in the 60's and started a business making budget kitchen chairs in his father in law's garden shed.

The business grew over the years and in the mid eighties he was running a 50,000 sqft manufacturing plant in QLD... a big "small" business. He was doing very well, had the big house, latest high end merc etc etc.

The late 80's heralded in the previous housing boom which resulted in a big increase in demand for his product; he couldn't keep up with orders. So he decided to build on another 15,000 sqft of factory space, invest in more machinery, hire more people.

Well we all know what the late 80's early 90's heralded in too don't we? Those big interest rates and "the recession we had to have".

So just as he substantially increased his standing overhead, his sales dropped to below "pre" boom levels... catch 22.

He went BK, his wife left him etc.

He now lives in a humble home on the outskirts of Brisbane.. a broken man, and essentially "poor".

Bad timing, bad business, or bad luck?
 
Well a large chunk of the worlds population have lost Buffet's 'Ovarian lottery' simply by being born in the wrong country.

In Australia there is so much opportunity to accumulate large chunks of money it's amazing, and it seems to be getting better not worse in my opinion.

Why people don't... well thats just us humans being human I guess.

You don't need to wander past this very bulletin board to see plenty of examples of young people with oceans of opportunity, yet they have so many excuses as to why things are bad..
 
I once owned a Milk Bar after my retirement, but kids used to pinch the lollies and break the milk bottles. After that I got fed up.
 
You can make your own luck. Work hard helps. It's not what you earn that makes the difference but what you waste.
 
hi all..having spent a lot of time in countries like The Philippines and Indonesia,its easy to see what we lack here..with the "lucky country" tag comes a very limited sense of family and a dog eat dog mentality of people never minding who lives even next door..like the instance of the sydney man who was dead six months before anyone new what had happened..people in 3rd world countries are poor financially but make up for it in hospitality and just good cheer..we could learn a lot from these cultures..Mark10:23..Jesus looked around and said to His disciples,"how hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God".
 
nioka said:
You can make your own luck. Work hard helps. It's not what you earn that makes the difference but what you waste.
Click to expand...

So, what if my friend bought a different horse, what if that horse was injured early in its career, what if she had a career ending injury and sold that horse to somebody else before anyone knew how brilliant it was?

What if those yanks went to UK looking for horses instead of Oz?

Hard work is indipensible, and yes you can create situations where luck may find you....but it is still luck.

Never underestimate it.
 
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