[quote=zk][quote=flyer]My comments were not intended as a judgment call or as a gospel.
Simply citing some documentable “real world” examples of the financial “belief system” by which millions of people live their lives. These beliefs and practices could be construed as equally as fantastical, ridiculous and delusional as some consider religious “belief systems” to be.[/quote]
Jimbob Smith grows up in a trailer in Kentucky with poor parents and an 95 IQ. He doesn’t have a sparkling personality or any real entrepreneurial skills. A pretty typical guy, really. Maybe not in your neighborhood, flyer, but there are millions like him. He finishes high school, gets a job at a machine shop, works there 45 years, has 3 kids, and has to scrape by in retirement. And he doesn’t have as much money as you because he’s delusional, right? And his delusion that years of hard work is his best chance at raising a family is comparable to believing that an omnipotent, anthropomorphic father figure created and rules the universe and will, while sometimes killing your children, give you eternal life if you worship him but won’t give hindus or muslims or atheists the same thing because they don’t worship him (to pick nowhere near the most bizarre religious belief)? Is that what you’re saying?[/quote]
it’s actually delusional to think that everyone can benefit from making money by more efficient means. the contrarian way to make money v. the way of the masses only works if not everyone does it. In terms of the easy money, it’s not available to everyone by its very nature. Only the smarter people can benefit by going against the hordes. Once everyone tries to get in on the good deal, it becomes the sucker deal.
if there are 10 potential films to invest in, each requiring a 30 million dollars total investment, and only one is going to be a winner, and the hordes allot the 300 million dollars they have to those films, they can’t all go with the winner. most lose. not delusionally. just , well, they’re losers…
that same logic applies all over the economic world. there are winners and losers. It’s not delusional; they’re just not as smart or lucky …
that said, the hordes have poor people problems. high interest rates, fines and fees on traffic tickets, barely scraping by. indeed, the system is deigned to keep poor people barely scraping by…
hell, not even the law school grads are getting jobs. their stduent loans are piling interest. the fed gov is burying the problem with “income based repayment” plans that hide the problem, as recently reported in the wall st. journal.
law schools an example of what was once a smart playlaw school being a good meal ticket has become a ticket to a lifetime of debt that is nondischargeable and for many, statistically unpayable. ditto the college degree, which was once rarer and had a higher career earnings premium, now being way less valuable as the hordes come to all get in on it.
the nimble and smart stop applying …applications to law school are way down)…the standards for admission get lower, the hordes apply, and are stuck with permanent nondischargeable debt and a lifetime of certain poverty or close to it.
suckers. pershaps delusional…but more likely, just bad risk analysts…
People don’t work long and hard because they’re delusional. they’ work 30 years because it’s the only way they have to make it through this world. If they’d figured out a better way, theyd take it.