I've told many a friend its a thin line between success and life failure

[oceansunshine]

I've always felt "lucky". Have a good job (near retirement too within a year to 4). Below is an example of one that had a "bad hand" and the New York Times columnist who was a high school friend from the same town:

 

http://nyti.ms/1CORSUt

 

 

By the grace of ..... many of us are "lucky"......

[+ MasssageGuy]

Thanks for sharing this OceanSunshine.

 

It is heart wrenching to see what is happening in this country. Empathy for our fellow citizens and neighbors has been extinguished by the hatred pumped out by Fox "News" Propaganda machine.

 

"Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America.

 

Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated."

 

I was lucky enough to "re-invent" myself and get a job in the IT field during the "go-go" years.

 

Now, even the IT jobs are going to India.

 

I'm glad I'm living "off the grid" at this point in my life.

[oceansunshine]

Massageguy,

100% agree with your assessment :-(

[samhexum]

its a thin line between success and life failure

Edited January 30, 2019 by samhexum

[MisterMike]

I'm glad I'm living "off the grid" at this point in my life.

You're on the internet. You're not off the grid.

[+ MasssageGuy]

You're on the internet. You're not off the grid.

How about not working for Corporate America any longer?

[MisterMike]

How about not working for Corporate America any longer?

YEAH. FUCK THE MAN. RISE AGAINST THE MACHINE.

[Gadfly22]

Isn't it "Rage against the machine"?

[samhexum]

its a thin line between success and life failure

 

Edited January 30, 2019 by samhexum

[+ tassojunior]

Actually, the hardest workers are usually at the very lowest level of society. And they work for peanuts over what they could just get off welfare if they're citizens. Terrible, hard, disgusting work.

[+ quoththeraven]

Define "hard work." It can mean intellectually challenging, physically challenging or exhausting, effortful, long hours (which could mean rewarding inefficiency), or of great consequence.

[samhexum]

I've told many a friend its a thin line between success and life failure

[marylander1940]

Thanks for sharing this OceanSunshine.

 

It is heart wrenching to see what is happening in this country. Empathy for our fellow citizens and neighbors has been extinguished by the hatred pumped out by Fox "News" Propaganda machine.

 

"Since the end of the 1970s, something has gone profoundly wrong in America.

 

Inequality has soared. Educational progress slowed. Incarceration rates quintupled. Family breakdown accelerated. Median household income stagnated."

 

I was lucky enough to "re-invent" myself and get a job in the IT field during the "go-go" years.

 

Now, even the IT jobs are going to India.

 

I'm glad I'm living "off the grid" at this point in my life.

 

What's heartbreaking is the hypocrisy of those who achieved success calling themselves self made men (Jeb Bush, Trump, etc.) and those who didn’t blaming others (Mexicans, elites, China, Muslims, coastal elites, etc.) for their failure.

 

In a recent thread about the shutdown I asked folks if they could get by without a couple of paychecks. Most of the posters said right out of college they put together and kept a rainy day fund aside just in case and I believe their posts were truthful.

 

To my surprise the most conservative high profile members on here went silent... Some of them have show no empathy towards others, even asking about "some blacks" who blame slavery for their poverty while not saying who do they blame for their own poverty. Nafta, maybe?

 

In the meantime we're still a magnet for others to come to this country for a better life.

Edited January 28, 2019 by marylander1940

[+ Eric Hassan]

it's time to start re-examining how we define "success." there's an interesting twat on twitter that i reposted about how the paradigms and status symbols and measurements that defined success 50 years ago are no longer relevant - how the younger generation is seeing the 40/40/40 method (working 40 hours a week for 40 years earning 40k a year) isn't bringing happiness, and with the volatility of the economy doing things like saving in a retirement account or counting on a pension are not the way to go.

[+ WilliamM]

Actually, the hardest workers are usually at the very lowest level of society. And they work for peanuts over what they could just get off welfare if they're citizens. Terrible, hard, disgusting work.

 

I worked in a factory during college summers. Some factory work is very precise and demanding; other jobs are simply boring and repetitive.

 

The last summer I had to be wide awake and alert all the time, or I would have lost several fingers. In fact, it was too much.

 

Not all factory work is like what Lucy and Ethel did in one the best episodes of early television.

[Rudynate]

There is a huge segment of the population that hasn't yet gotten the message that the old rules no longer apply. And they have problems making it in today's world. Those that got the message and took action on it have thrived.

 

In the early 90s, I worked at a biotech startup in South San Francisco. They were adopting a new management structure and we had to sit through endless information sessions and orientations in preparation. I got two tidbits from those sessions that have served me well. The first one was management's recommendation that we learn to take an entrepreneurial attitude in performing our jobs. The second was that we should regard the experience we were acquiring there as part of our compensation. The meta-message I got from those two tips was, "We don't owe you a thing. You are expendable." I have allowed that meta-message to guide me ever since and it has never failed me.

[TruthBTold]

I've always felt "lucky". Have a good job (near retirement too within a year to 4). Below is an example of one that had a "bad hand" and the New York Times columnist who was a high school friend from the same town:

http://nyti.ms/1CORSUt

By the grace of ..... many of us are "lucky"......

 

I guess like most things I have never found my "life" a black/white exploit. There are many aspects where I have been "lucky" (except for much of it I had to work hard to get to that "luck"). At the same time, parts of my life have not been so lucky. And those aspects actually I had much less control over than the luck that seemed to come along. So I don't look at things as one or the other.

[TruthBTold]

Kevin Green is a human being and, being that, has high intrinsic value worthy of respect.

 

Kevin Green’s life is a result of cumulative choices - some of which may have taken a turn for better and others for worse. He has freedom of choice. As others noted above, we either adapt to change with resilience or we risk demise succumbing to circumstance.

 

We all have Kevin Greens in our history - the good looking high school quarterback that succumbed to xx and now wanders from job to job between visits to jail - but society does not “owe” someone protection from the result of choices they made that turned out poorly.

 

Personally, I struggle with the “living in the moment” mantra...I have a friend who, despite having an above median household income, made the choice to skip his insurance payment one month when money was tight. That happened to be THE month that a hurricane hit his coastal community and he lost his home and everything in it. I agonize over his financial loss, but it resulted from a bad choice. While this is a “financial” example, examples of poor decisions with bad outcomes in the emotional realm abound.

 

As others have noted - it’s a thin line between success and life failure.

 

I guess you missed the day at school when empathy and sympathy were taught.

Certainly society does not "owe" anybody anything. However much of the time it chooses to provide for its citizens even though the bad end is the result of the citizen's life choices. I recall when many in America did not want to provide for AIDS patients because while AIDS was a disease it was the result of the patient's actions. Other people chose to exercise empathy in those circumstances. It is your choice to make.

[+ E.T.Bass]

I certainly agree there are times one might feel lucky, to not take one's circumstances for granted. I question the value in calling others a failure, though.

 

I also agree how many are apt to blame others for their trying situation, showing little or no empathy. 100 years ago there were institutions that kept under roof society's folks that were not able to cope for various reasons. I guess the Trumpsters call that the nanny state.

 

What's worse is how people blame the poor for what's wrong with society. That goes on in other countries as well, not just the US.

[+ quoththeraven]

I guess you missed the day at school when empathy and sympathy were taught.

Certainly society does not "owe" anybody anything. However much of the time it chooses to provide for its citizens even though the bad end is the result of the citizen's life choices. I recall when many in America did not want to provide for AIDS patients because while AIDS was a disease it was the result of the patient's actions. Other people chose to exercise empathy in those circumstances. It is your choice to make.

Choice is not always free, either. Yes, people might have choices, but those choices aren't equally wide for everyone.

 

Basically this attitude condemns some people for impulses we are all privy to. The reason government ameliorates the results of such choices is because it is better for all of us. For example, helping those who abuse drugs, whether they're down and out or well off, helps them be more productive members of society, dampens demand for drugs and reduces collateral consequences like crime and negligent parenting. In terms of return on investment, it is superior to locking up drug users.

 

We need less judgmentalism, not more. That this religion of personal responsibility is often preached by libertarians is particularly galling. Either you're in favor of personal freedom, which includes the right to make bad decisions, or you're not. It's inconsistent to try to have it both ways.