Anyone Care To Guess The Average Rate Of Return On Money Paid Into Social Security?

[Mursilis]

He's wrong because his whole schtick is "people could choose to not be poor". The sky is purple in his world.

He's half right on that. Some people are truly victims of their circumstances, but some people are just plain lazy. I've got another relative who had the opportunity to go to college, but turned it down because "Degrees are so over-rated!" (translation: I'm too lazy for college). For the last 10 years, he's smoked dope, played a ton of video games, and worked at a few dead-end jobs. He is truly the victim of his own choices.

 

[nonlnear]

He's wrong because his whole schtick is "people could choose to not be poor". The sky is purple in his world.

No, you are misinterpreting his simple statement of fact. What he means is that people choose to be in denial of how poor they are and live at a higher standard of living than they should if they were planning sensibly.

If living paycheck to paycheck is not a choice for someone earning $30000 a year (let's say all these numbers are net so we don't have to go on unnecessary tangents), why is it that somebody earning $5000 less per year magically seems to spend about... $5000 less per year? Coincidence?

What we need is more people choosing to be poor - or at least spending like they are.

 

[Pens1566]

No, you are misinterpreting his simple statement of fact. What he means is that people choose to be in denial of how poor they are and live at a higher standard of living than they should if they were planning sensibly.

If living paycheck to paycheck is not a choice for someone earning $30000 a year (let's say all these numbers are net so we don't have to go on unnecessary tangents), why is it that somebody earning $5000 less per year magically seems to spend about... $5000 less per year? Coincidence?

What we need is more people choosing to be poor - or at least spending like they are.

That might be true if it were limited to this thread, but its spidey we're talking about.