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Why are some people poor?

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awg said:
Do you think so?

Pretend you are born into low caste poverty in rural India, for eg, but intelligent

would that not be a worse stoke of fate for wealth accumulation than being born in Australia?
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Sure the path could have more obstacles but the intelligent being will have the better chance. The duration from poor to wealth for your example may be longer and simply comparative to an Australian resident.
 
Mr J said:
Lack of knowledge does not mean one is unintelligent. It simply means that one lacks education or experience in that area. This would certainly be the case regarding the poor and managing wealth.
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Twist it as you will.
 
Wysiwyg said:
Knowledge is a trait of intelligence so perhaps you don`t confuse definition.
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What I mean is that Having high intelligence by itself is nothing unless you apply your self to devolep knowledge in a certain area.

For instance, The mechanic that works on my car has far superior Knowledge of engines than I do, But that does not mean he has higher intelligence.

Unless a person takes the time to develop knowledge in a certain area, intelligence will not help.

The worlds richest people are probally not the worlds most intelligent, Warren Buffet actually admitted he went to bed hungry one night because he couldn't turn on the stove in his own kitchen.

Now I am not saying Buffet is not intelligent, I am just saying he had no knowledge of kitchen appliances.

Now just as Buffet went to bed hungry because of lack of knowleadge on a certain topic, many people hit retirement age with out any assets to draw income due to their lack of knowledge on another topic.
 
Additionally, there are the poor people who struggle for year upon year to the point of giving up in their goal of attaining wealth.

They are rejected for various reasons including ... religious belief, supposed or realised intelligence, skin colour, family "status" and physical appearance.

They come to a realisation the "society" they live in generally rejects their presence.
 
Mr J said:
The average person already achieves a moderate level of wealth. What they do not and cannot achieve is better than moderate wealth. Only the minority can 'get ahead'. Also, one example is not proof.
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I wouldn't say the average person has moderate wealth.

I would say moderate wealth would be a capital base large enough to support a passive income of about $50,000.

The average Australian has no such capital base and lives pay to pay.
 
Tysonboss1 said:
The worlds richest people are probally not the worlds most intelligent, Warren Buffet actually admitted he went to bed hungry one night because he couldn't turn on the stove in his own kitchen.
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LOL Such an example of monetary wealth as W.B. reminds me that wealth isn`t created alone. You need friends and acqaintances with wealth to accept you. Being "allowed" to become wealthy is another kettle of fish.

Anyone who thinks they made it on their own is asleep.
 
Wysiwyg said:
They are rejected for various reasons including ... religious belief, supposed or realised intelligence, skin colour, family "status" and physical appearance.
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An Interesting fact,

When looking at the backgrounds of both Australias and Americas first generation wealthy people, Immigrants make up a very large percentage.
 

Thats a nice comfortable way to look at things,

Thats like looking at a sports star and saying it's all natural ability, After all it couldn't have anything to due with the 6 days / week they have been putting into training for 10years before the general public heard about them.

If you want to be poor do the following things,

Victimise yourself and believe that others are rich because they are born like that.

Try and keep up with the jones's

Spend all of you pay each week,

get into debt for consumer goods, holidays and cars.

cling to entitlements, benefits and pay rises.

Spend extra money that comes your way such as tax refunds etc. after all you weren't expecting the money so you way as well spend.

Convince your self that rich people are greedy evil people.

Convince your self that money is hard to get.

Avoid risking your money, after all it's better to spend they money than put it in somthing risky like investments.
 

Intelligence has nothing to do with wealth. Opportunities and those you make play an enormous part.

I also fundamentally disagree with your above statements.

Everything you have said has to be based on you having disposable income of such an amount that you can accumulate more wealth from it, rather than, as I have said in response to other comments by you, having some excess cash from last months pay.

Creating wealth is not a simple matter of giving up the coffee or buying cheap imported products or home brand goods etc., you would have to be kidding yourself if you were to seriously believe this 'saving' v's income will create any wealth that could move you from 'poor' to 'wealthy'.

This is not directed at you, yet I posed a question a few posts back as to what people are considering to be poor and I haven’t seen a single answer.

People who are poor are those starving, homeless, oppressed, and subjugated people of many African countries. That’s poor! Some guy (or girl) who can’t afford Foxtel or a new car every 3 yrs is far from poor.

Any standard of wealth or poverty is based on what you consider you would like to have if you had the money; however that doesn’t make you poor, it just makes you wishful, unless of course you are wondering where you next meal is coming from.

I have to admit to finding the idea that people are poor because they want to be as absolutely abhorrent – which seems to be the suggestions of a couple.
 

Yes it depends on income really doesn`t it. If one can live fruagally on income of 100 k per year then wealth is a certainty.
 
I think it's more of a case of it's not how much you earn but
how much you save.

Spend less than you earn always goes down well.
and spend less than you earn and invest the saving goes even further

I know people on absolute minimum wages and own their own home outright and still accumulating more than they can spend.

These arent the smartest people I know and they are the one that doesnt care if Mr Jones own a BMW or what the latest fashion in Investing by gearing or margin loan, slow and steady and compounding seems to work
 

Offcourse creating wealth takes more than just buying cheaper goods, especially if the money you save in one area gets spent in another.

When I speak of spending less than you earn I mean actually reducing your total spending so each week you have money left over which you can then use to invest,

If you set aside a certain portion of your pay each week and invest it wisely, eventually it will compound to the point where it produces more cashflow than your work does, you can then choose to work or not this is true wealth.

If you spend every last cent you earn, and then use credit cards and other loans to spend even more, you will never be able to choose not to work, you will be stuck in the rat race on the debt tredmill, this is being poor,

The africans you talk about are living in poverty, I class hopless poverty in a very different class than what I call being Poor.
 
You seem to have a particular axe to grind here, rather than just arguing objectively.

I agree overall with Tyson's views.
Poor people often lack self discipline.

NB. I am absolutely excluding from this anyone with serious illness or disability. That would have to be the fastest passport to being poor.
 
Tysonboss1 said:
I wouldn't say the average person has moderate wealth.

I would say moderate wealth would be a capital base large enough to support a passive income of about $50,000.

The average Australian has no such capital base and lives pay to pay.
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That's far greater than moderate wealth, unless you only consider the wealthier portion of society to be 'wealthy'. Only a minority can aspire towards earning a passive income of ~$50k.

ROE said:
I think it's more of a case of it's not how much you earn but
how much you save.
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It's what you do with the savings that matters. Savings depreciate or break-even over time. Investing is an improvement, but most people invest poorly and spin their wheels.

Julia said:
Poor people often lack self discipline.
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Most people lack discipline.
 
Julia said:
You seem to have a particular axe to grind here, rather than just arguing objectively.
I agree overall with Tyson's views. Poor people often lack self discipline.
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Yes, many find reason for `poor` in the individuals psychological makeup, just as you have done. It is obvious to me that a large proportion of this planets poor people are the direct result of oppressive leaders and the laws they create. Some other reasons are extreme climate, poor soil, little or no water supply, lack of knowledge, wars and disease.

Thank your lucky stars that this country has an abundance of life sustaining natural resources along with the intelligence of predecessor and present to create a civilised country resulting in a quality of life for the inhabitants.

Poor defines rich, rich defines poor. Everyone can`t be wealthy because they would all have the same and no poor people to compare too. As I`ve said many times before, everything is via comparison and agreement. Whenever we quantify something it is via comparison.

So to cut a long story short with my now sharp axe, the majority of the worlds poor people are so because of circumstances mentioned in the first paragraph. Not through their own cause.
 
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