[MikeCF]

Interesting and somewhat depressing:

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

[babelfish669]

What a bunch of pathetic whiners.

[j r]

Is this the moment when we officially become a nation of victims?

[Samseau]

(10-03-2011 07:11 PM)babelfish669 Wrote:  

What a bunch of pathetic whiners.

(10-03-2011 09:33 PM)j r Wrote:  

Is this the moment when we officially become a nation of victims?

You guys make it sound like nothing bad could ever happen to you.

[Caligula]

Some of the stories are truly sad, but in many of them it's easy to see that they're just whining, have a ridiculous sense of entitlement and are reaping the consequences of poor life choices.

[Chad Daring]

Part of me wants to agree with this, but as a college grad with 50k a debt and only a 30k a year job, I struggle, but I still manage to pay the ungodly rent in the DC burbs, pay for my car, pay my insurance, and all of the other costs that come with life.

I do feel the pain though. Daily I feel lied too, at 11am when my bank emails me my statement. I did everything right, or so I was told, and I've got dick to show for it. I feel their pain, but there are better ways to spread a message. If they/we were really at the end of the rope government buildings would be on fire not starting a tumblr. Not saying we aren't close to that though.

[j r]

(10-03-2011 09:44 PM)Samseau Wrote:  

(10-03-2011 07:11 PM)babelfish669 Wrote:  

What a bunch of pathetic whiners.

(10-03-2011 09:33 PM)j r Wrote:  

Is this the moment when we officially become a nation of victims?

You guys make it sound like nothing bad could ever happen to you.

My point is not to deny that people are going through some difficult times, but to make a statement about how we face up to these difficult times. The days of finding one job that you keep for most of your life, that gives you generous benefits, and that provides you with retirement income, those days are gone. Maybe that sucks, but life sucks sometimes.

The reason that I read this board is because it's full of people who realize that our economy is undergoing some deep and fundamental changes and, if you want to make it, you're going to have to learn to hustle. Those people looking for the government to come and rescue them, they're already lost.

[Caligula]

(10-03-2011 09:51 PM)Chad Daring Wrote:  

Part of me wants to agree with this, but as a college grad with 50k a debt and only a 30k a year job, I struggle, but I still manage to pay the ungodly rent in the DC burbs, pay for my car, pay my insurance, and all of the other costs that come with life.

I do feel the pain though. Daily I feel lied too, at 11am when my bank emails me my statement. I did everything right, or so I was told, and I've got dick to show for it. I feel their pain, but there are better ways to spread a message. If they/we were really at the end of the rope government buildings would be on fire not starting a tumblr. Not saying we aren't close to that though.

Fair enough, hard for me to relate to how things stand not being American. Not trying to make light of people who are truly struggling.

[Roosh]

I'm surprised at the visceral negative reaction to the protesters. During times of war those critical are first to say, "Well they're fighting so you can keep your freedoms," but then when they exercise those freedoms, they get called names or what have you.

A lot of Americans are upset about the direction of the country. This current round of protests is what happens when marginalized people have nothing to lose and desperately want to be heard.

Winter is going to squelch these protests before anything significant happens, but next summer we'll see something bigger. Either a trigger event (some sort of injustice) will provoke city riots like in London, or a new round of Occupy protests will be much larger, more organized, and with more defined goals. This is just a warm up.

[kerouac]

While it's easy to look at the Wall Street Protesters as pathetic sacks of fermented yeast, I think it's easy to miss the point that our people are just not the type of people to go out and pull out a real Tahrir Square type protest. And it's not because the American people are pussies.

It's because we've become conditioned to control our anger. Everywhere you look, society has done whatever it can to limit the masculine forces in society. This has come to the benefit of the controlling groups in this country. A placated population is wonderful for a bunch of greedy bastards who have no connection to the rest of us and are willing to bring us down to the levels of the New Delhi slums as long as they get to enjoy their fine beluga caviar.

And then you have the tea party idiots who think these rich bastards are on their side.

It goes to show that people need to realize there are two things wrong with society right now... two essential forces:
1) The Masculine nature of people has been neutered.
2) Education is something religion should not fuck with, and neither should liberal idealists. Education should be something that is real. Education is about the truth, about what IS, not what some loonies think it is.

[Chad Daring]

This site does make me rethink the validity of my culinary degree, I'm actually a little more thankful for it then I was before. Then again I chose culinary because its unofficially recession proof. Everyone needs food.

[j r]

There's part of me that sympathizes with the OccupyWallStreet crowd, but really they're just putting out an overly-simplified narrative to counter the overly-simplified narrative of the Tea Party and the straight bullshit being propagated by the mainstream political/media/academic establishment. It's not enough to just have a vague feeling that something is wrong. You have to educate yourself as to exactly what's going on. And every single time I hear one of these Occupy-ers talk, it is pretty obvious that they don't know anything about economics, finance, politics, how to run a business, etc.

Just today I saw a list of demands. I don't know if it was "the" list of demands, but it was a pretty typical assortment of what you might expect from that crowd. And I guarantee you if that set of supposed reforms was ever enacted, this country's economy would collapse within ten years.

[Caligula]

Edit - not getting into a political discussion.

[Saladin]

This shows the importance of getting your financial life handled in college so you're not in debt when you graduate but actually have a nice 40-50k saved up in the bank.
My buddy who's 22 and has 70k saved up in the bank with 0 debt is a prime example of somebody who didn't just sit passively and then get screwed by the system. The number one thing they should teach kids when they graduate high school is that getting into a lot of student debt is not worth it.

[blurb]

Reading that has definetely made me appreciate the things that I have. I needed that reality check.

There's some good quotes on that blog:

Quote:

They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it.

I don't mean to add insult to injury, but how does a person go through 4 years of college and still not know how to properly spell?



I think what we can all learn is to be more skeptical about what society expects of you, that nobody owes you anything, and that when s*** hits the fan, you better be prepared.

Don't take advice from people who have nothing to lose from the decisions you make. All those college kids listened to their counselors, parents, friends, etc. and ended up getting f******. The colleges just wanted money and told them anything that would get the kids to stay.


What I see that's so common among those is that they followed conventional "wisdom" and did what society expected of them only to have society f*** them in the ass. Things like "I was told that going to a top tier college would lead to a better life" and "Hard work is what the American Dream is about" is so common.

In a way, they kind of remind me of betas. "Being a nice guy and being dependable, honest, and caring will win a girl's heart because that's what women want."--only to never get the girl. Some people never learn.

[kerouac]

(10-04-2011 12:24 AM)blurb Wrote:  

I don't mean to add insult to injury, but how does a person go through 4 years of college and still not know how to properly spell?

I'd be willing to guess this dumb bitch didn't make it into a top-50 university, or, hell, a top-200 university. I'm sure you've probably heard by now that there are more than a few "colleges" that are willing to take anybody in for the correct federally-approved-loan-backed fee.

[MikeCF]

I'd wager most of you have more in common with those 99%'ers than you have with the banksters. The elite have convinced you to believe you're so much better than everyone else. Meanwhile, the elite loot and you do not enjoy the spoils.

How many of you are one serious medical emergency away from financial disaster? More than you know. I've seen lots of people like you financially and emotionally crippled after being charged with a crime or sued. To some degree people make their own luck...Until an uninsured driver runs a red light, t-boning your car. Your $100,000 uninsured motorist policy is gone after a few days in the hospital.

Next thing you know, you're one of those same "losers" you mock today.

[MikeCF]

(10-03-2011 10:59 PM)torontokid Wrote:  

This shows the importance of getting your financial life handled in college so you're not in debt when you graduate but actually have a nice 40-50k saved up in the bank.
My buddy who's 22 and has 70k saved up in the bank with 0 debt is a prime example of somebody who didn't just sit passively and then get screwed by the system. The number one thing they should teach kids when they graduate high school is that getting into a lot of student debt is not worth it.

Those are usually the same "self-made men" whose parents paid for everything.

Just because guys don't have an outright trust fund, and don't talk about parental support, doesn't mean they aren't getting it.

I'm not a player hater, but in my life, there are very few truly self-made men.

Even Zuckerburg was able to drop out of Harvard because his parents would cover his ass if his idea didn't work out. You can gamble big when you have the insurance of rich or at least well off family members.

For me, it was get rich or die trying - though that's an exaggeration. I could always live in my parent's basement while recovering.

Be born into abject poverty and walk without a safety net. Then start lecturing guys about how they should have five or six figure savings by 22.

Bet ya don't know many "self-made men" like that, do you?

[thegmanifesto]

(10-03-2011 10:03 PM)Roosh Wrote:  

I'm surprised at the visceral negative reaction to the protesters. During times of war those critical are first to say, "Well they're fighting so you can keep your freedoms," but then when they exercise those freedoms, they get called names or what have you.

A lot of Americans are upset about the direction of the country. This current round of protests is what happens when marginalized people have nothing to lose and desperately want to be heard.

Winter is going to squelch these protests before anything significant happens, but next summer we'll see something bigger. Either a trigger event (some sort of injustice) will provoke city riots like in London, or a new round of Occupy protests will be much larger, more organized, and with more defined goals. This is just a warm up.

I haven't really been following this, but I did pick up a newspaper in Montreal, Canada and they said this stuff is organizing in Canada right now.

The US media is not mentioning this.

I do agree with the "Summer Spark Theory" and have mentioned it before on here.

(10-04-2011 01:56 AM)MikeCF Wrote:  

I'd wager most of you have more in common with those 99%'ers than you have with the banksters. The elite have convinced you to believe you're so much better than everyone else. Meanwhile, the elite loot and you do not enjoy the spoils.

How many of you are one serious medical emergency away from financial disaster? More than you know. I've seen lots of people like you financially and emotionally crippled after being charged with a crime or sued. To some degree people make their own luck...Until an uninsured driver runs a red light, t-boning your car. Your $100,000 uninsured motorist policy is gone after a few days in the hospital.

Next thing you know, you're one of those same "losers" you mock today.

Great point.

[blurb]

(10-04-2011 01:56 AM)MikeCF Wrote:  

I'd wager most of you have more in common with those 99%'ers than you have with the banksters. The elite have convinced you to believe you're so much better than everyone else. Meanwhile, the elite loot and you do not enjoy the spoils.

How many of you are one serious medical emergency away from financial disaster? More than you know. I've seen lots of people like you financially and emotionally crippled after being charged with a crime or sued. To some degree people make their own luck...Until an uninsured driver runs a red light, t-boning your car. Your $100,000 uninsured motorist policy is gone after a few days in the hospital.

Next thing you know, you're one of those same "losers" you mock today.

Quote:

Some of the stories are truly sad, but in many of them it's easy to see that they're just whining, have a ridiculous sense of entitlement and are reaping the consequences of poor life choices.

Like Caligula said, no one's making fun of people who were truly affected by a disaster, and some of the stories were sad and could have happened to us all. But some of them do have an enormous sense of entitlement. Kids in college talk about it being O.K. to take on so much debt because "I know that the starting salary for my major is $XXXXXX," only to graduate and have a hard time finding a job. "I finished college with an English/History/Art major; therefore, I am entitled to a steady life-longjob with decent pay, good benefits, etc." I don't mean to pass judgment since there was little information available, but one of the posters was a 20 year old mother who was still in college. Why are women having babies that they cannot financially support or take care of? Furthermore, Americans have one of the lowest rate of saving rates in the world. A lot of disasters could be minimized if people had an emergency fund stashed away so that when disasters strikes, the effects wouldn't be as severe. I'd be willing to wager that most Americans don't have money saved up for an emergency. How many people do you know that spend money on cars, houses, and other consumerist crap instead of saving it for a rainy day? Americans can be some of the most financially illiterate people on the planet.

[blurb]

Quote:

Be born into abject poverty and walk without a safety net. Then start lecturing guys about how they should have five or six figure savings by 22.

Bet ya don't know many "self-made men" like that, do you?

What's wrong with telling people that they should have money saved up in the bank?

Yes, in my life so far I know only of one man who you can describe as a "self-made man," and I can tell you that he almost died. In fact, a lot of people this guy knew died at a young age in a violent bloody death. Be thankful you didn't have to go through what he did.

I get what you're saying about how most people are born into some kind of safety net and can afford to take more risks than others, but the problem is that virtually everyone born in the West has some kind of safety net, whether it be from family, spouses, children, etc. Schools provide free lunches. Public libraries offer access to thousands of books. Even the government provides assistance through food stamps.

You're crazy if you're going to throw everything away just so you can prove how big of a "man" you are. No one has anything to prove to people. Antoine Lavoisier, the famous French chemist known for his scientific work in the late 18th century, was actually a pretty well-off lawyer who conducted science experiments as a hobby.

[Smitty]

The problem with a lot of the postings on that site is that they are blaming someone else for the consequences for their bad decisions. They are victims of their own decisions. The expensive tuition, the liberal arts field with no job opportunities, the mortgage under water. They try to sell their story to make the reader feel bad - "I have $40k in student debt, I'm pregnant now, and I have to choose between raising a child and paying my school debt." And? Why did you get pregnant? Why didn't you take the necessary precautions? Why did you pay $40k for a degree in Women's studies?
I agree with their point that government money should not be spent to bail out any organizations (wealthy or nearly bankrupt), but why should my tax money go to bail these people out of their bad decisions, the so-called 99%? That sounds callous because it is. I was very careful to make the "responsible" decisions every step of the way and most of the fuckers on that web site lived beyond their means or made stupid decisions. You suffer the consequences of your decisions. A nation of whiners.

[Gmac]

Off topic, but honestly that girl in the picture should never have been admitted to college if she couldn't even spell "field" properly. What a shitty job our country is doing to improve the quality of reading/writing/communication skills.

[amistod]

(10-04-2011 08:29 AM)Gmac Wrote:  

Off topic, but honestly that girl in the picture should never have been admitted to college if she couldn't even spell "field" properly. What a shitty job our country is doing to improve the quality of reading/writing/communication skills.

lezbehonest. She was probably in such a hurry to share her sad story with the world that she didn't have time to run spell check.

Agree with Smitty.

True story:

My friend from 6th grade laughed at me my entire life. I was always working, never going out or going to college games. He married his HS sweetheart in college. Him and his wife took out full loans each year. His debt is now over 100k.

Halfway through college, she got pregnant and dropped out. He finished his law degree and passed the bar almost 2 years ago.

He still has a clerk job, and he just told me that they are expecting again.

- He has 100k+ debt
- No insurance
- She doesn't work / didn't finish school (social work degree)
- Get gov't assistance for kid 1 allowing them to buy organic food (500 a month)

How dare you have another kid!!?! I would be ashamed as a man to not only accept that kind of assistance but to actively try for kid number two?

He had the audacity to tell me that he was really looking for a job where he could pull down at least 50-60...

99%... When has the Majority every been right? Wasn't one of "G's" main investment tips to do the exact opposite of everyone else?

[Gmac]

(10-04-2011 08:51 AM)amistod Wrote:  

lezbehonest. She was probably in such a hurry to share her sad story with the world that she didn't have time to run spell check.

It was hand-written. I guess she'll just become a drug-dealing prostitute with a college degree who can't spell. Winnar.