FrontierPsych

An easier way to do this is just to break up these companies directly. Monopolies or duoplies or x-opolies should be broken up, just like AT&T and Standard Oil.

Having these monopolies (defining loosely - whether one company or a 2 or 3 or 4) is the main deficiency of capitalism.

Unfortunately, breaking up monopolies or increases taxes is exceedingly difficult to do as large companies and their lobbying congress prevents it in most cases.

Taxes on corporations to me always seemed rather silly.

If there was a tax hike on my business, I'd automatically hike prices by 15%. This is what businesses are supposed to do. You buy shoes for your shoe store, you mark up the price, you can't sell them for what you bought them for. You hire an extra person, you raise the price of your goods or services. Oil prices go up? Gas stations raise the price of a gallon of gasoline. You have to pay extra taxes, you raise the price of your goods or services. It's always the customer who pays that extra 15% tax. It has to be that way, how else could it be?

I don't disagree with what you say. I personally loathe credit cards and credit in general, and I personally don't use any type of credit. I pay for my cars in cash.

I don't think you get the same purchase protection with a debit card vs credit card.

As far as renting a vehicle, I've tried on a debit card and been denied. But that was quite a while ago so things could have changed, and I guess have as you have done it.

You are putting words in my mouth. I didn't say drive them everywhere, every day, available 24/7 every minute of the day.

Since you are taking that tack, I now know that you are not having this discussion in good faith.

>or many people in poverty would have done it.

Nope. And you are the 100% proof. Instead of asking me how, you attack me. Most people would willingly starve to death before doing something different. Trust me, I've tried to help many people out of a bad situation. I got emotionally invested in their situation - they came to me for help, not vice versa. And they just spent money like drunk sailors when they had a little bit.

Anyways, you are not discussing in good faith so I'm going to have to part ways with you here.

>How many times have they turned off your water?

That is not a fair question.

The issue is not how many times my water has been turned off. The question is what has led the water to be turned off at someone's house that has had their water turned off.

At some point, sure, there is nothing you can do. If someone has had polio and is in one of those polio breathing machines (https://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/av7qWyq_700b.jpg), then yes, there's nothing anyone can do there, for sure. Or if someone runs out into a busy street and gets run over and killed because they didn't look, nobody can bring them back to life.

But if you put aside those examples, I need to know what they did, and where they are, and what they are capable of doing. Based on that information, I could advise them on what to do so that it doesn't happen in the future.

Unfortunately, as I have learned the hard way, I could share this info with people on how to prevent it from happening in the future, but only 1 person out of 10,000 will actually want to change their life and do things a new way. That's the hard cold facts. A person who gets their water turned off over and over is doing the same exact things that get their water turned off over and over. If I had 100% control of their money, and could force their arms and legs to do what I want them to do, it wouldn't happen.

I mean, I looked on indeed.com and there is a job that pays $35/hour to answer phones, do light filing, front desk receptionist. That's $70K per year. I could go to that person, help them fill out a resume, send it to the company, tell them how to dress and role play with them on how to interview, but 9,999 times out of 10,000, we'll do all that work and they won't show up to the interview. And have some kind of excuse, of which I know what most of the excuses would be.

That's how it is.

Sorry, I must have signed up for an extra helping of stupid. Tell me how you think that there is a fight between sentence 1 and sentence 2.

I don't understand - was this 45 minutes in a car or public transportation like a bus?

If you didn't have a car, make a friend. Find a friend that has a car that you can shop with. It's not that difficult and people like to help other people.

I don't know about your produce, but in my family, we all went to the orchards and picked our own. then we would freeze and can for 2 entire days.

My parents would buy an entire cow (we had a very big family), and hire a butcher to cut it up, and we put all that in two freezers we had in our garage.

Everything can be done, it just takes work and imagination to figure out how. I know, I've been there too.

And as I mentioned elsewhere, many in my family have lived in the middle of nowhere, and had to drive 1 1/2 hours to go to Costco. They did this about once per month and load up on the staples - bulk buying.

Actually, frozen and canned produce is much better nutritionally. This is because the produce is picked at it's peak nutritional value and taste. For fresh produce, a lot of times it is picked early because of transportation times.

I have a bunch of frozen and canned fruits and vegetables, they are great.

I could go on all day about what one can do. But it falls on deaf ears, all the time, like yours. Instead of being open, you shut completely down. Instead of saying, "Wow, how interesting, I don't think it can be done, but I want to know how you do it." But no, you answer with a sarcastic remark, so I know where you are at, mentally. Which is closed down and defensive.

I remember talking to a friend of mine - I told her she should purchase her next pair of prescription glasses at Zenni optical for $15-$40 for frames and lenses. I must have told her at least 6 to 8 times in our conversations, as we saw each other daily. She asked me how to save money, so not like I forced it on her. Well, after all our discussions, she went into a local optomitrist and spend $500+ on her glasses. Trust me, she was poor as f. This is why the poor stay poor. Even when I tried to help, she self sabotages. And this is by far the only person I've had this experience with, people who ask my help, and I give my opinion, and then they go off and blow their money anyways.

The point is that people don't care if you have suggestions of how to make their lives easier. They would rather do it the same way, even if it takes 45 minutes one way instead of finding a friend with a car to carpool with. Again, I don't know if that was your case, but other people have said they can't do anything because they have to ride public transportation.

It is sad, because here I am on this post, offering my assistance, and most of what I'm getting is vitriol, instead of people trying to learn, or even consider what I'm saying and simply ask questions to me as to how it is done.

Sad.

ok.....

You are talking about city infrastructure and stuff that I'm not talking about. If you want to have a utterly completely different conversation about tearing down every single house and every single road, and do a big do-over, I guess we can do that.

But I'm just talking about how poor people can buy a tuna fish sandwich, dude.

That was just an example saying Costco. But, one can try to find someone who has a Costco membership and make a trip together. Or maybe going in on a membership with someone else. If a Costco is near enough, it would make sense to find the money to buy one, because the savings would give enough money back to make financial sense.

5 miles is not a long way. I live in a metro area, one of the highest traffic-wise, and I go that far, no problem.

The car - you have to do this thing called "work" and work at finding someone who has a car and share. Maybe a church has a van that does this kind of thing. I'm not saying it is the easiest thing in the world, but seriously, it is not that difficult to find out if someone has a car that can go to a grocery store, even a normal one, and carpool.

There's a lot of other things one can do to lift themselves out of poverty, that are not difficult.

I've been poor and tired a long time ago. I know what it is like. But it is what it is, and you have to deal with it, right? You can't just do nothing. So, at least what I did, is work on the extra work that would give me the highest payback and greatest time savings, because that shit build on itself. The first thing I did was to buy what staples that I could in bulk. Not only did it save me money, but it prevented me from having to go out and make special trips to purchase those items - so I got a LOT of time back.

I started making food in bulk, and froze it, and food prepped on Sunday so I didn't have to make food every day, just grab and go. Saves a LOT of time.

To this day, I do the same thing, and have not changed anything, because that stuff got ingrained in me. I don't really have dumb mistakes with my money, too much, as I am super careful and have priorities.

But, if you are poor, what can you do? You still have to work and try to get out of poverty, even if you are tired. So one should try to think what they can do to get the best payback for everything they do, and do that first.

Like if you're poor but still own a car, and driving to work takes $50/week in gas, then maybe buying a bicycle and bicycling to work might save $2,500 per year in gas. If one is healthy enough. I'm not saying to do this - it is just an example. But still, if one could, that's an easy $2,500 per year. Then you take that money and use it to buy toilet paper, beans, rice, and other staples in bulk. This means you get a discount for bulk, PLUS you don't have to go buy them every week and take time and effort to do that.

I hope you get what I'm talking about.

Yes, but that is often calculated incorrectly. Like it might take 4 hours to make beans, and people say that. But really, it takes 15 minutes. This is the amount of time to sort and was the dried beans, put the beans in the water. That's it. Then you let the beans simmer for 3 1/2 hours. But people will count the entire 4 hours as time they spent making food. Not saying you do that, but many do. Also, the more one cooks, the faster it gets. First time it might take 45 minutes to make something, but after you make it 15 times, it gets down to 10 minutes. Also, it is about making staple foods, like pasta. Of course if you make some complex dish for the first and only time, every night, that will take a lot of time. But if one has many easy dishes to make, then it is fast. I like oil and balsamic vinegar dressing - to make it from scratch takes me less than a minute to make a big jar of it that will last me 2 or 3 months.

It really does not take too long to make one's own food, if one does it correctly.

I personally work with a woman that has 5 children and works 2 fulltime jobs. Her husband used to do all the work but he died of health issue 3 years ago. She does have her mother and sister to help her with her children. But when I talk to her about this, she understands and agrees with what I say and does it.

I'm not saying it is easy - it isn't. But when you are there, you have to do what you have to do.

I think I AM the only one who knows the solution. Because when I was in my 20s, I been there, done that.

Low quality foodstuffs are available anywhere, even in the wealthiest communities - cheetos, twinkies, cookies, crackers, etc. One can make poor food choices anywhere, that is for sure. Anyone canget the cost externalized to healthcare.

The point is that it is a choice to buy fruits, vegetables, eggs, etc, rather than cookies.

Everyone knows what a poor diet is at this point. Who doesn't know potato chips are not healthy, even in the most poverty-stricken areas? Who doesn't know that brocolli is healthier than Sugar Puffs cerial. Nobody, that's who.

I understand poverty.

What is so difficult in finding a friend or organization with a car? Maybe it will take 2 or 3 or 4 weeks of trying to find someone to help, but eventually one can.

>And then they turn around and blame their financial difficulties on the system, politicians, greedy rich people, immigrants, white people etc. Anybody but themselves. consistently refusing to take responsibility for their own actions.

I didn't write this, but could have. 100% agree with what you are saying. The whole thing about "my school didn't teach it, that's why" just makes me so mad. It's just simply not that difficult.

It's like...you read my first sentence and didn't read anything after that. Good job, well done.

That is perfectly acceptable and the way to go.

There are reasons to use a credit card - you get purchase protection, for one. You also can build up credit if you want to buy a house. You need one to rent a car.

But really, while there might be other reasons, the only reason to get a good credit rating is to be able to buy a house. Everything else can be paid for in cash (check, online payment from your checking account, etc)

When you use a credit card, you should treat it exactly like cash. You should have cash in the bank before you purchase anything with a credit card, and then pay the entire credit card balance each and every month.

If someone has a problem with this and just can't do it, then they should not get a credit card at all. Credit cards are very dangerous technology if one can't control it. Just like fire - if you are not careful with it, you can set your house on fire.

As long as I can have someone peeling my grapes and feeding them to my\e one at a time, I'll be happy. I just cannot be incovenienced, it is the right of all Americans.

>The problem is that in the US you force stores into these commercial zones that are separated from housing zones and force people to drive there.

Yeah, but this is just an inconvenience. There is no reason why there should be an issue to drive 1 or 2 or 8 miles to get a good deal on healthy food. Even if you don't have a car, find a friend or church that does.

As I've said elsewhere, my relatives lived in the middle of nowhere, and had to travel 60 miles - an hour and a half each way - to go to the Costco to stock up on staples.

You have to drive for 15 minutes to a grocery store??? Oh, misery. The world is coming to an end.

We need to get someone here to peel my grapes and feed them to me, place them in my mouth one-by-one so that I have to do nothing. I just want to be treated as a Roman emperor, I live in the USA...isn't that everyone's right?

I've looked at food deserts on maps. There are places that have no good grocery stores around, but there ARE good grocery stores 5 or 8 miles away. If you have a car, drive there. If you don't have a car, find someone - friend, church - who does and stock up when you go there.

My relatives lived in a food desert, but it was not in a city. They lived in the middle of nowhere. Rural. They were in an actual food desert, they had to drive 1 hour each way once a month to stock up at Costco. But they didn't bitch about how they were in a "food desert".

There are always solutions. They might take extra work...but so what?

Here in California, we have a store called The 99 Cent Only Store, which is a dollar store. A dollar store is where almost everything is a dollar. They HAVE had to raise their prices because of inflation, but so have all other grocery stores. A good dollar store is awesome to save money, if you buy the right stuff. It is awesome. I can buy blackberries there for $1, while at a regular supermarket they charge $3 or more. This is a 300% return on one's money to buy it at the dollar store. I can go into a dollar store and fill 3 grocery bags full of food that would only be half of one bag at a regular supermarket.

Mine has all kinds of other cool stuff, too. Buy a can opener for $1, rather than $5 or $8 at a supermarket - that is a 500% to 800% return on your money right there. Wouldn't you like to get 500-800% return on your money in the stock market? That's exactly what it is, exactly the same. Except if you sell your stocks, you have to pay taxes on them, but when you save money, you pay no taxes on saved money.

And there is zero wrong with a microwave and mini fridge. I personally don't see an issue with that. I've had to do that in the distant past, it was no problem at all, not at all.

It's only a problem if you want to be Bill Gates lifestyle while making $15K per year.

You can make anything in a microwave. There is no way that they don't allow microwaves. And I personally just bought a microwave from craigslist for $15, and it was almost brand new. The buttons that you press the time in still had the plastic covering on it.

Same with fridges - can buy a used one for super inexpensive - a small one, to be sure, but at least you have something. Or could buy two of them over time.

There are always solutions.

There are no such thing as food deserts. I've seen the maps, and yes, there are areas that don't have large grocery stores. BUT, there are good grocery stores 5 or 8 miles away. If you have a car, you drive there. If you don't, you find someone who has a car to drive you there and carry inexpensive groceries back. Could be a neighbor, a church, yeah, it will take a little extra work, but so what? My family member lived way in the rural area and had to take a 1 hour trip each way to Costco once a month to stock up on staples. They took the time, why can't everyone else. Except they had to drive 60 miles, not 5 or 8 miles.

There are always easy solutions.

Unfortunately, I think I'm the only person in the known universe that knows the solutions.

Dollar stores are awesome. If you buy crap at the dollar stores, then you are buying crap, but if you buy Cheetos at the dollar store or at the regular grocery shop, they are the same crap. Crap is crap no matter where you buy it.

Any food will make you sick. You can find crap food at any store. Dollar stores don't have the monopoly on that. I think that 90% of "food" at ANY store is crap.

Food is extremely inexpensive if you learn how to make stuff yourself and don't buy anything that is prepackaged. Don't buy Thousand Island dressing for example, make it from base ingredients. Instead of paying $3 at a regular grocery store, you can make it for 25 cents, if that. Croutons? Costs $2.50 at the store, or make them at home in your oven for 10 cents or whatever. All you need is bread and spices, and as I said, this is not a $2.40 savings, oh no. it is a 2,500% return on your money.

Nope. It does not. I've read this many times, and it isn't true. Not in reality, as opposed to the theory it states. It is completely wrong. Not always, but mostly.

I hate articles like this, and especially the "boots" example. Like most things, it sounds great in theory. Reality is usually much different.

>“Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars."

So he makes $38 per month...where is that other money going? As a cowboy, he is spending that on whiskey and prostitutes. We've all seen the movies. These days, it is the exact same thing where people spend their excess money on crap - big screen tv's, and that kind of stuff, even if they are very poor.

People do not do comparison shopping to get the right price. People wait to the bitter end before they fill up their car with gasoline, and do it at the gas station that costs $.50 cents more per gallon, but they travel past a station that is less expensive all the time, they are just not near it when they absolutely need gas at that second - they could fill up their tank when it is 1/4 tank left at the cheap gas station - people don't plan ahead.

It's pretty easy to lift oneself out of poverty in many (not all) cases, but people are ruled by emotions and what they want at this second. People don't plan. They don't comparison shop. When they get a little extra cash to buy in bulk quantities on some kind of thing like a great toilet paper sale - they spent the money on a dinner at a restaurant instead, because "they deserve it".

I'm not saying this is the same with all poor people - if you are a single mother with 2 young children, well, that's tough if you have nobody to help you out.

.

Furthermore, that cowboy in the example could go out and try to get a side hustle. Make enough extra to get more basics.

And the "food deserts" are complete bullshit, in reality. Yes, there are places that don't have large grocery stores, for sure. BUT, when I looked at a map in Chicago, for instance, there are Costcos and all kinds of stores that are 5 miles away. There's no desert, unless you mean that there's no grocery stores within a block. But one of my relatives lived in a remote area and traveled 1 hour to get to Costco to make big purchases of living staples. So if a poor person doesn't have a car, well, they need to work - find someone who has a car that can drive you there and split expenses. Find a church that has a van to travel there. Yes, you have to work at it a little bit, I personally am not going to life someone up and carry them piggyback for 5 miles because they don't want to work at finding someone to help them.

I'm looking at ALL this stuff in the article and it's almost all bullshit...but one does have to try to figure it out. It is not super easy, but it isn't super hard either.

The main problem, though, is that people just don't want to what is necessary.

I did the exact same thing but had no issues.

I think the major issue is communication ability, social abilities, and all that. Someone can have the "ideal best" education, but without social skills, it all does not matter.

I've risen to the top of many (small, small) organizations because I understood about social skills and finding out who you need to know and get to be friends with in a company. Being friends with the right people gets you far, far, far ahead of anyone else.

I've also got all my jobs through cold outreach. I don't care, I'm pretty fearless and have done a shitload of tradeshows, and sales, and all kinds of stuff like that.

I think the thing that hold most people back is social skills and political skills and the ways one can become known as the experts in their industry.

It's all on youtube, if you look. Social skills, small talk, business politics, dressing appropriately (I spent a LOT of time at high end men's stores and read GQ from cover to cover for years). https://www.gq.com/ How one dresses is extremely important. Read it for a year or two, go to high end men's stores - Saks Fifth Avenue for example - https://www.saksfifthavenue.com/mens - go in, try stuff on. Look around.

I have friends that didn't go to university and are making mid to high six figures. If they can, so can you. Don't let your own mind defeat you, make it your ally.

I'm not covering all the exceptions, because exceptions = exceptions.

But even for wealthy people, stupid financial decisions will sink their ship. Mike Tyson won $300 million (a third of a billion dollars) and blew it all. Johnny Depp made $500 million (half a billion) and almost went broke with profligate spending and poor financial decisions.

There's a well-known saying - Poor to rich to poor in 3 generations. This means someone comes to America without a penny and they put their kid through school and that child makes hundreds of millions, but that child's child grows up with no respect for money and is fritters it away, and they end up poor.

This is why people who win the lottery or pro athletes go broke after 3 years of winning the lottery or out of the sport - they blow money.

Saying something like "Maybe they have a rich dad who will die soon and cover all their debts" shows a complete and total lack of respect for money. Anyone who thinks this way has a great chance of blowing all the money, unless they change their thinking. Why would making crappy financial decisions just because you have a rich dad make any sort of logic at all? It makes no sense. Why would one make poor financial decisions, just because they are going to come into some money? All it means is that this same person is going to continue to make poor decisions when their rich dad dies, run out of money and then complain about it when they are broke. Happens all the time.

I understand what you're saying. However, I pretty much learned all there was to learn about them in 15 minutes when I got my first one. I read about them. I'm not the smartest person in the world, by far. If I can easily learn now, then anyone can learn this stuff on their own, in 15 minutes. It is NOT complicated.

Getting information is exceptionally easy, and a LOT easier than when I got my first one. I knew from when I got my first credit card that I had to pay off the balance in full, every month. That using a credit card should be the exact same as using cash. You never buy anything unless you actually have the cash first. Then you can use the credit card and pay it off at the end of the month. It's so easy to understand. It doesn't matter about credit cards companies and their obfuscation. I didn't learn it from credit card companies. I just learned it because it was easy to learn. How difficult is it? Don't use a credit care unless you have the cash first. You pay it off in full and you don't pay interest, whatever level it is - .01% or 40% - it does not matter what the interest rates are, unless you don't pay on time.

And the problem is that people don't care. They think emotionally, and don't give a crap about future ramifications.

This is my favorite video that explains it all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3ZJKN_5M44

No, I was 100% NOT mocking you, I really am interested. I'm interested in your feelings about it.

I don't understand your explanation, though. If you could restate it for me, that would be great. Also, it might help you as well to define it more. I think you can explain it comprehensively it if you set your mind to it.

Both.

It was meant both reasons you give, but come on - it is simple to understand. You know exactly what I mean, and I do find it offensive. But it still is sarcastic at the same time. Things can mean two things at the same time.

But really, what it comes down to, is if someone finds something offensive, you don't use it. 100% it is derogatory word indicating Slavs are equivalent to slaves. If you disagree, you are just being willfully unseeing.