I know rich people.

[Texacon]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x586309

 

I love this thread.

Chris_Texas  (109 posts)      Tue Mar-08-11 12:19 PM
Original message

I know rich people.
 
First, for perspective, a little about me.

My wife and daughter and I are poor. My wife earns $8.50 per hour on average. She has no benefits. Nor will her pay go up. I work for myself at a business I started a few years ago. After expenses I probably earn about the same, maybe less, but we are sticking it out because it is possible things will improve and there are no other jobs anyway.

We have two cars, both are about ten years old and in bad shape. We cannot afford to replace or fix them. If they die we are finished. We don't have TV. We don't drink or use drugs. We have internet and books for entertainment. We both have health problems but cannot afford to see the doctor or dentist. We live in a rat trap house that's falling apart; the roof leaks when it rains and my bathroom floor is rotting out. We cannot collect food stamps or other assistance because the state has issues with my job -- I am not sure what those issues are exactly, but I suspect that it is mostly a matter of them denying benefits to as many people as they can to save money.

I suspect many of you can look at the above and come up with all kinds of "bootstraps" plans and suggestions. Thanks, but please save them. Things always look easy when you are looking in from the outside. Poverty is not only a condition of the wallet, it is a hangman's noose throttling your soul and drive and hope. When you look ahead and see only icebergs on the horizon, and your ship is driving towards them at full speed, well, you tend to cling to your petty vices. In other words, it's easy to work harder and make sacrifices when you believe you will get something in exchange; when you are poor all exchanges are from bad to worse, so you hang onto everything you have.

But I know rich people.

My mom is rich. She is worth tens of millions. She has homes (okay, let's be honest here, mansions) in some of the wealthiest communities in America, and her hobby is buying and selling them. She just finished closing on one a couple months ago, and already has her eyes on yet another -- according to her this last one is just too darn big (I told her that's what doors were invented for) but this next one will be perfect (which is, of course, what she says about all of them until she buys them). Now you might think that with a collection of houses all over the country, from the gated communities on the California coast to the ski resorts in the mountains of Utah or Colorado, that she probably spends a lot of her time at home. Not so. Two reasons.

First, any house she owns is in a constant state of construction. She buys them and then drops a couple hundred-grand correcting invisible flaws (before tiring of them and buying another). Second, when you are really rich you travel. Home is a place for entertaining your rich friends in between adventures, and if that home is in Switzerland in March, then Tahoe in November, so much the better. I could not list the homes she has bought and sold or the places she has been if I tried. She tells me about them all, gleefully I might add, but it's all really just a blur. Nor could I tell you where she is now, she could be in California, or Switzerland, or Russia, though now that I am typing this I believe she did say something about spending a few months in Greece. Who knows, and really who the **** cares.

She exists in another reality. As a rich person, if you are not perfectly satisfied with the number of drawers in your kitchen, if the swirls in the marble of your bathroom conflict with your inner harmony, if you look in the mirror and discover a wrinkle or sag, there are experts on standby to fix all of them. The challenges are not how to get through the day or week or month or winter, but rather how you appear to your friends. It is apparently difficult to flush mountains of money without diving into the pool of tacky. See, the rich also like to economize. For them it's cool. They are making sacrifices, they struggle just like everyone, and they really want to tell you about it. The new Porche is on hold for a bit, and when they were staying in Versailles they made do with only a single toenail flosser.

Okay, I made that last one up. No one could get by with just one.

The one thing that I have seen, from her and what I hear about her friends, is that rich people are entirely self absorbed. They do nothing for anyone unless it benefits them in some way. If, on their way to breakfast, they walked past a homeless guy that some punks had set on fire, they would phone the police and, with horror in their voices, complain that the smoke and screaming were disrupting their morning brunch. Then they would call their friends to tell them the great story. The one thing they would never feel is compassion. They genuinely care only about themselves. If you want to find compassion for others you have to go to the bottom of the barrel; when people know what real suffering is they are more willing to help mitigate it in others. When you are rich you compete with your friends, when you are poor you want to help them.

I do not believe in god or divine justice. It's a cool idea, but laughable when you look at the injustice in the world around us. If some supernatural entity cared about such things then why wait? But while I don't believe in invisible, impotent, or uncaring gods, I do believe in evil. There is a whiff of it every time I deal with my mom or hear about one of her friends. When I think to myself, this lady (mom or not) spent enough money on her last adventure to send every one of her grandkids to college, and the bitch is relishing telling us all about it and sending us ****ing pictures of all these wonderful things we will never ever see, well, what else can I call it? It's twisted.

I cannot imagine living that way knowing that people in my own family are struggling. It's just inconceivable to me. Rather than feeling proud and excited about my latest trip or toy, I would feel ashamed, and if I did go on such a jaunt I would probably try to hide it. I damn sure wouldn't email pictures to my slum-family telling them what a great time I am having. But then, I am not rich.

 

liberal N proud  (1000+ posts)        Tue Mar-08-11 12:25 PM
Response to Original message

1. When you are rich you compete with your friends, when you are poor you want to help
 I like that statement, it is so true.

rdking647  (164 posts)      Tue Mar-08-11 12:34 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. not always
 a lot of people would call me rich. if i see a homeless guy i give him a few bucks,or even food. when its hot in the summer i carry bottled water in my car and give it to people begging on the street corners. and a lot of rich are the same way.. yes there are a lot of self absorbed rich people but there are also poor people who really dont mind living on welfare. who have no intention of ever getting a job.

a broadbush paints both ways

grasswire  (1000+ posts)      Tue Mar-08-11 12:43 PM
Response to Reply #4

8. boilerplate kneejerk
 "but there are also poor people who really dont mind living on welfare. who have no intention of ever getting a job."

Do you really think that any living soul would rather live in poverty than get paid a living wage to work?

Yes, some would rather live in poverty than pull the entrails out of chickens in a stinking factory farm, or clean toilets, or break rocks in blistering road work -- because the pay is so damned poor!

If a person is paid a living wage for their work, then the choice is more clear.  

Shiver (1000+ posts)        Tue Mar-08-11 02:19 PM
Response to Reply #8
35. No, this is unfortunately true.  
 Edited on Tue Mar-08-11 02:21 PM by Shiver

I work in a grocery store. I see people come in, completely unashamed - some even proud - to have their food stamps. I've overheard some complain to their friends about having to get a job and losing their food stamps, and not because they'd be kicked off the program due to making too much. They were upset about having to use their paycheck to buy food, and not having enough for $50 of Ketel One vodka or a new designer jacket.

This is a very small minority, I want to add. Most people are exactly like you say, preferring to work a living wage and struggling to get out of poverty. But there is that small minority who are, for all intents and purposes, abusing the system.

Edit to add: Again, I want to emphasize this is a small, very small percentage of the people on welfare. And I realize some people may look at me funny to coming close to validating GOP lies or talking points.

Maraya1969  (1000+ posts)        Tue Mar-08-11 02:39 PM
Response to Reply #4

38. They don't MIND LIVING ON WELFARE! How do you know that? Seriously how?
 Have you worked with people on welfare? Are any of your friends on welfare? Have you read any studies, books or watch TV specials of people on welfare?

I think this is something you wish to be true in order to justify the greed in you.

Chris_Texas  (109 posts)      Tue Mar-08-11 01:04 PM
Response to Reply #2

14. Answers
 NUTSHELL: My dad was wealthy. He was a chief executive at a major bank and a lobbyest for the banking industry. He was also a self-made man, one of those guys who went to work at age 3 in the toxic waste factory before woking his way through college, so he was a firm believer in making things as tough as possible and giving your kids nothing. Bootstraps dammit! My parents were divorced when I was a teen. He married his former secretary (a nice lady by the way), and eventually killed himself, leaving all of his money to his new wife. My mom, who did quite well out of divorcing him, went on to marry a doctor who was also very rich.

The purpose behind my post was not so much to complain about what a terrible person my mom is. Or not exactly. She is, by my ethical standards, are horrid human being, but the point I apparently did not really get across well is that she is, in virtually every way, little different than her peers. At the core they are ALL that way.

The noticable difference is that some of them use their kids as a conversation piece for how great they are doing, they send them to elite schools and finance their kid's businesses and investments, introduce them to the right people, get them into the club. My mom uses us in the same way with her friends, only the opposite. And she just LOVES telling us how marvelously successful the kids and grandkids of her friends are. "Chris, do you remember little Johnny Johnson? He just opened his first restraurant in Moscow, my friends and I are all flying out there for Thad Braxton's wedding reception! Isn't that great!" Sure mom, sounds great. Good on him. (True story by the way.)

Anyway, hope that answers your questions.

 

I know DUmmies!  LOL!!

There's a lot more over there.

KC

[FreeBorn]

Aspergers is a bitch.

[LC EFA]

First thing that comes to mind is that everyone *I* know who owns a house, or in many cases is paying a bank for the privilege of calling a place home - are constantly renovating. It's called value adding and adds to your profit when you upgrade.

I hope his mother leaves everything to a charity when she dies.

Whiny feculant little cockroach like the DUmmie deserves nothing.

[jukin]

I wonder what heinous thing chris texas did to his mother to be so disowned?

Or could it just be that it is lying. The Duches do tend to do that...all the time.

[Boudicca]

Lorien  (1000+ posts)      Tue Mar-08-11 04:32 PM
Response to Reply #53
56. True. But most of those people aren't milking the system (it's VERY hard to get
 public assistance in most States) they're finding ways of milking their friends and family. I've met a few; they become furious when anyone suggests that they work for a living, because they see working for someone else as "selling my soul." and have serious issues with any kind of authority. One poster here was enraged that a new public housing project required those receiving free housing to meet with a social worker once a month. She didn't think that ANYTHING should be required of someone who was given a free apartment or condo. But the purpose of the social worker wasn't to drug test the tenants or shame them; it was to help them find decent employment and/ or deal with their illnesses, depression or addiction. The poster, a person who makes EVERY thread on DU a thread about poor people (and herself in particular), believed that anything that is not a no-strings-attached handout is pure tyranny. That's the kind of person that the Right focuses on when attacking the majority of poor people who ARE doing everything possible to pull themselves out of desperation.

When I lived on $80.00 a month in the unheated basement of a ramshackle home in the ghettos, eating only Ramen noodles and terribly malnourished, I applied for every job I could find (Reagan era-jobs were scarce) until I finally landed a job as a busperson at Bob Evans. Being poor, hungry, cold and sharing your bed with spiders and cockroaches at night is MUCH harder living than having any job out there. No one outside of the profoundly mentally ill would "choose" it. 
 


NO clue who Lorien is speaking of, fer sure.

[Texacon]

I thought it kind of odd that Chris_Texas says his mom buys and sells homes yet ... she has homes everywhere.  Either she is flipping them or she is keeping them.  Sounds like mom has found a niche and is very successful at it.  Good for her!  How many jobs is she creating on her own?  Maybe Chris needs to go to work for/with his mom.

And the reason he can't get unemployment money is because Drug Dealer doesn't really fall under 'self employed'.

 

KC

[Odin's Hand]

Chris_Texas  (109 posts)      Tue Mar-08-11 12:19 PM
Original message

We don't drink or use drugs. 

 

Guy is probably pumping any cash funding that comes his way into the "ganga markets".

[Ralph Wiggum]

We cannot collect food stamps or other assistance because the state has issues with my job -- I am not sure what those issues are exactly, but I suspect that it is mostly a matter of them denying benefits to as many people as they can to save money.

 

Chris_Texas  (109 posts) 

Me thinks this is a newbie looking for street cred.

[Wineslob]

Complete and utter BS.

Okay, I made that last one up. No one could get by with just one.

You should have been honest and said:

Okay, I made that last one up

.

and stopped right there.



No bongs

[Celtic Rose]

She has homes (okay, let's be honest here, mansions) in some of the wealthiest communities in America, and her hobby is buying and selling them.

She's a house-flipper, awesome job as far as I'm concerned, though it is difficult to be successful at it.  She is helping employ numerous contractors, home improvement stores, tile manufacturers,etc., and helping keep real estate moving.

I'll believe that she is worth "tens of millions of dollars", but I would bet that good portion of her net-worth is in the real estate.  She probably looks at her son and wonders where she went wrong.

The rest of the post describing the life-style of the "rich" is pure BS

[Ballygrl]

Totally a mole! I never heard this poster before so I googled some of their comments at DU:

Chris_Texas  Donating Member  (111 posts) Mon Mar-07-11 11:07 PM
Response to Original message
5. Sixty years ago they were great! These days not so much
   
Neither of the two unions I was a member of were worth a crap. The first and largest worked tirelessly representing management, the second just did nothing at all. Later, not so long ago, I encountered a third (at a trucking company). They had a great deal for their members! Since the trucking company worked almost exclusively on government mega-jobs, and the government mandated that the company pay union scale, it was a great place to work.

But then, the UNION had nothing to do with that. Their gig was making sure that only good-old-boys and family members ever got a job there.

So, to summarize, no. Unions today pretty much suck. I love the idea, but looking to these corrupt douchebags to lead the way is a waste of time.

Chris_Texas  Donating Member  (111 posts) Mon Mar-07-11 11:38 PM
Response to Reply #7
17. No. Don't support Walker at all (see below)
   
Collective bargaining is (in my opinion) a basic human right. More, he is attempting to go back on a deal that was made with these teachers.

However, with that said, don't expect me to get all excited about it either way. This is not some epic battle between poor working folks and rich fat cats. In a nation in which the largest employer is Walmart and almost half the population works retail, teachers are very well off.

Where was all this drama when democrats betrayed their supporters with Obamacare or Patriot or Iraq or GITMO or torture or TSA or TAX CUTS for billionares? I didn't see thousands of wealthy teachers taking it to the streets to fight for anyone else. But then, they had theirs already.

What Regressive uses the term Obamacare?

Chris_Texas  Donating Member  (111 posts) Sat Feb-19-11 02:08 AM
Response to Original message
8.  Fifty years ago unions were really something
   
Edited on Sat Feb-19-11 02:09 AM by Chris_Texas
These days not so much.

Somehow I do not recall these folks storming the capital when Obama replaced single-payer with "Give the insurance companies money or go to jail." We all know why.

[GOBUCKS]

I damn sure wouldn't email pictures to my slum-family

No, I wouldn't either. This guy is an embarrassment to the family. I think his mother is up in Rindge, New Hampshire.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The one thing that I have seen, from her and what I hear about her friends, is that rich people are entirely self absorbed.

So, apparently, is her kid.

 

[Randy]

I know rich people.

Some of the nicest people you'd ever know, give you the shirt off their backs if you need it.

I know poor people. Always trying to scam you for a buck, calling with bullshit excuses to get money for dope. Bitching and moaning about how they can't catch a break in life. They voted for Obama too, just like the DUmmies did.

[TexasCop]

My BFF is rich.  He's damned rich.  Just because he's rich, there's no way I feel entitled to what he has.  He made different choices in his life than I made in mine and it meant more money for him.  I don't hold it against him.  We still hang out  and drink beer.  Why do DUmmies hate these people so much without knowing them?

[AprilRazz]

I know rich people.

Some of the nicest people you'd ever know, give you the shirt off their backs if you need it.

I know poor people. Always trying to scam you for a buck, calling with bullshit excuses to get money for dope. Bitching and moaning about how they can't catch a break in life. They voted for Obama too, just like the DUmmies did.

Same here. Working in horse(racing/riding) circles you meet lots of people that are stinking rich with rather notable names. With the exception of one they had hearts bigger than their wallets.

[chitownchica]

NO clue who Lorien is speaking of, fer sure.

Haa- I saw that one Boudicca.  I can't believe the Buick hasn't rolled all over those comments.   

[diesel driver]

Haa- I saw that one Boudicca.  I can't believe the Buick hasn't rolled all over those comments.   

She either hasn't woke up (or come to) yet, or the Buick is out of gas, meaning she has no way to charge her Iphone.   

[IassaFTots]

What the frick is a toenail flosser?????

[Texacon]

What the frick is a toenail flosser?????

I wondered that too until I figured out I was too poor to know what it was.

KC

[Chris_]

All I need to know is it a person or a thing? 

[IassaFTots]

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.  I guess we are just poor. 

[vesta111]

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.  I guess we are just poor. 

Oh my mollycoddling Ass. this is for real????

I grew up in the 1960's parents were middle class but managed to take me to dancing lessons as a kid, paid for horse back lessons, gave me a fine life.

As I went into my teens I became dissatisfied as parents would not buy me a car at 16 and still insisted I go spend an hour a week at Church that held no interest to me.  My parents hated me.   They bought new furniture and  a big Color TV for themselves but could not buy me a car---

Then when the Senior prom came up, they would spring for a Limo or high cost festivity's.    Darn they had the money but kept on my back to get an after school or summer job.

So it was my dear old grandparents that finally cashed in their savings bonds to go to college. Just one year but my very own parents would not spring for extra money so I still had to live at home under their outragious rules. and get a part time job because they SAID they had to help out my Grandpa to pay taxes so he would not loose the farm. 

  Seems the bonds he cashed in for my education had left the old fool broke.  The dumb shit could have sold the farm, gone to a nursing home and had enough money left over to give me for a full 4 year education .

Life is not fair, I never asked to be born and it is up to the people and family that  forced me into this world to make sure I come first before any others.  Life goes on, today I wash dishes for a living, have a problem with drugs, is this my fault??   Hell NO it is the fault of my family that did not live up to their obligations to see I turned out well.

Today I have 3 kids I never see, and do not support, why should I, I never asked for them to be born.  I have my needs to be filled before the kids, I need my stuff and life.

It is all the fault of my parents and family that were selfish towards me, made demands on me, damn it all to hell why do my kids keep dragging me down.??
 

Unfortunately this thinking has so invaded society that it is not unusual, the Schools teach this this and when one has a problem child the Doctor allways sides with the child. 

This is what is being taught to children every day in school. they have no responsibility in life, all is owed to them.

We must do something soon or we will be raising a family of monsters that will cause their own children harm.

WARNING  ----This is a collage of people I have met in my life and not based on any one person.

[AllosaursRus]

I wonder what heinous thing chris texas did to his mother to be so disowned?

Or could it just be that it is lying. The Duches do tend to do that...all the time.

I notice he fails to mention his mother probably put up the capital for his little small business venture, made a mess of it so he's only makin' no more than $8.50/hr, and has gone back to the "well" once to often. No wonder "mom" has shut off the stream of greenbacks. So, because she won't throw her money his way in order to improve his lifestyle, she's a bitch!

Wish I knew who he and his mother were. I'd send her an email!

[chitownchica]

She either hasn't woke up (or come to) yet, or the Buick is out of gas, meaning she has no way to charge her Iphone.   

She might be busy lecturing in other threads to notice.  I'll have to go back and check.