GLTALLTOAD, you wrote:
"...I started this thread to discuss MONEY. ..."
-perhaps you did, but it looked to some of us like you talked about envy.
-And, even if you are not religious, go and read the 10th Commandment. -Envy eats your soul, and envy destroys the society. It also inspires tax systems all over the world to 'level' everybody.
In many societies enormous amounts of resources are wasted on preventing people from getting rich - much more than the resources used to help the poor and needy.
Another thing: It is actually expensive to be poor - one example: In your country some people live on the sharp edge of their credit cards all the time, paying not only for goods and services but also paying the bank.
Re. Economic Planning (one aspect of 'Money'):
Having a lot of peasants in my family tree I sometimes regret that the old peasant ways of economic planning seem to have disappeared:
There was one harvest each year...
-And, if you eat your seed grain, you won't get a harvest...
If you eat your cow, you cannot milk it...
If you don't feed your horse during winter, it won't work, come spring...
-it was a sometime cruel world, but just because nobody should need to starve today, there is no reason to totally forget the old principles!
And, by the way, the person picked up by the Good Samaritan, was probably grateful that he had a bit of extra money!
Crash,
Come on...now the color green is to blame for all the assholes who try to screw other people, lol????
Does that mean Ireland or Greepeace or the equatorian forests are greedy too?
It was ditto or ID who earlier said money is nothing more than a tool to achieve whatever goals you may have. You can use it to buy a hamme and smasho on someone's head or to help your neighbor build a home.
I said money only makes you more of what you already are.
It magnifies your assholeness if you are one, but the vast majority of people I know with a lot of money are not like that.
Don't blame money itself.
Arta,
Your university education is the key to the door to your individual achievement, independence and career.
That is nice an dandy...just like in the west, right?.:))
You will be able to enter the work force and perform your job with the same opportunity and responsibilities as most men out there do, correct?...maybe even better!!
I assure you I am not being sarcastic about the last comment.
Four of my best collegues are women and I would rather work with any of them instead of dozens of other men doing the same job.
The conflict you face is that at the same time and in addition to the above you see yourself as a wife and mother (your biblical family note) believing you can manage a household and raise your children efficiently.
You will fail at both. Period.
Your children will be raised by strangers in a daycare or after school program becaue to compete with men or other women in the work force you will have to work the same long hours most men do.
You will not even know the names of your kids' school teachers, playmates or favorite characters because you will be too busy thinking about work, or even bringing it home with you.
You will have to rely on others to manage their nutrition and even the things that influence them, like TV, friends, books, etc etc etc..
Your marriage will suffer and turn into a superficial financial arrangement with some sex thrown into it once in a while until the opportune time for you or your husband to seek greener pastures (here we go again with the green thingie...sorry!)
You will be too busy or tired to welcome your husband with a home cooked meal and a bright smile after his full day of work, because you will have spent all your energies at work and your best smiles for the best looking co-worker who just got the promotion for his hard work.
Your work performance will suffer, as well. Who is going to take the children to the doctor or the dentist or pick them up from school when they get sick or take them to attend whatever extra curriculum activities they may want to participate in? Your co-workers will resent you for taking time off to attend to your family's needs because they will have no choice but to pick up the slack when you are not there to do your job.
In the west, the vast majority of men already know this is not the way to build and take care of a family.
You may very well be the workaholic you label yourself and a better one than anyone around you, but don't for one minute try to sell me the idea that you will also be a good wife and mother at the same time. NO WAY, NO HOW.
Sancho,
I hate that bumper sticker with the same passion that I hate state sponsored lotteries (another way for the government to tax the poor)
The bumper sticker tells you "go ahead, get in debt up to your eyeballs"....
1) Who gambles most (compared to their assets), the rich or the poor?
2) If everybody were to work out their 'balance sheets' tomorrow, how many people would have assets in excess of their liabilities, and how many would have liabilities in excess of their assets, do you think?
Does that answer your question?
(MONEY: Friend or Foe)
"MONEY: Friend or Foe"
-depends...
-like Fire: Good servant, bad 'master'
.....
Trying to keep up with the Jones
-pretty hard after Tom moved into the neighbourhood!
......
Don't try to keep up with the Jones,
drag them down to your level.
.......
-and don't covet your neighbour's donkey!
Now, this wonderful woman from FSU, who used to manage her money (in CASH) very well, comes to the land of the free (and free-spending), where 'money' includes 'plastic', etc. (-and "buy now, pay nothing until next year...")
Did we finish analysing...?
Any anectotal/statistical evidence?
"You must DIE...and you must LIVE till you die." It is meant "live", I hope, and not just "spend time on earth"? Toad, I share your thoughts. We are not living for money, but it's a lot easier to live with some as to live without.
She learns the new ways (to her) to manage money...period.
Just like she learns a gazillion other things in the crash course that moving to a new country will bring to her.
Let's not try to fool anyone here.
FSU countries are decades behind the times in matters of financial markets, management and stability. Unless and until the rule of law becomes commonly accepted, their working classes will suffer at the hands of the abusive powerful elite.
The west does not operate like that.
There are poor social classes who remain so primarily by their own choice, not because of any form of oppression.
The opportunity to excel, improve and succeed is available to anyone.
re. "...The opportunity to excel, improve and succeed is available to anyone. ..."
In a way, I agree, in another I don't: I was not selected for the Olympic Games. And, even if I had trained 16 hours a day for 100 years, I wouldn't have qualified. A man's got to know his limitation. And management of one's life and one's career, and one's money is also something some people do better than other people...
Now: Money - it's neither a Friend nor a Foe. It's just a method of payment for a 'thing' or a service...
Next question: How many marriage break-downs are caused -more or less- by disagreements over Money?
I think Money is a very important topic to discuss with your girl - before you marry!
(but, then again, I'm weird, so my opinion probably doesn't count)
First you have to find a woman that you might be compatible with, perhaps you are recently divorced and your wife cleaned your clock and you are a little aprehensive (scared) to get back in the game. Did you know that on the main page of the Forum Sanch at the bottom of the page are numbers and these are previous threads, you could open them and answer them if you get rea;lly bored. About money, Money is the means not the end, your ex-wife must have all your money.