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Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

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Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#191

Post by WalterBright »

cmdrfred wrote: post #156
ktRolster wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>going from $1M to $2M is almost inevitable. If that were true, I could easily borrow it now and make my way there.

Average market return is 7%[0], with a competent money manager and a few years it is virtually inevitable statistically. You can do exactly what you describe, but if you don't have the assets to back it up they won't loan it to you, nor would you be able to make the payments. [0] http://www.thesimpledollar.com/where-does-7-come-from-when-i...

Ironically, very few money managers manage to even do as well as the S&P 500. Everyone thinks they can do better, and wind up falling short.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#192

Post by ap22213 »

ap22213 wrote: post #164
mikestew wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not alone - trust me. Most people don't believe me. It might help if you actually stated where you live. As it stands, you're talking about your girlfriend who "goes to a different school". Which school, and what's her name?

Loudoun county, which is ranked as the highest income county in the US.

LOL - of course many of you just seem to want to rebuke me. Makes sense, given today's culture. But, you're just adding to the problem.

Most current problems in our society stem from people getting more satisfaction out of pushing web buttons than doing real things out in the real world.

Oh, well, sucks to be many of you but I guess really good to be me. It's just really sad. Especially sad given how poor I grew up.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#193

Post by projektir »

arbuge wrote: post #29
trjordan wrote: post #3

I wish I could remember where I read this, but I once heard it explained to me as this: It's easy to deride the journey of the rich college student: 80-hour internships at Goldman Sachs, unpaid positions in government, etc. But, the things that are done by successful people are hard, as hard as walking a tightrope. The difference is that rich students walk this tightrope over a bed of pillows. Poor students walk it o…

>> What's less obvious is how nerve-wracking it is to know that there are real consequences. Danger creates stress, and stress ruins results. Paradoxically, if you know you have more than one shot, you're more likely to succeed on your first try. I think this depends on the person. Some people work better under pressure, others not. There is a real danger of postponing, procrastination, and not taking things seriousl…

The danger on the poor person is astronomically bigger than the one on the comfortable person no matter how you slice it. A lot of the time the comfortable person is just expected to do more without a good reason for it.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#194

Post by ducttapecrown »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #70
pnathan wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what they need is some sort of advocate In brief, because I'm at my day job: no. That is not the right approach. That is the approach that gets one labeled an elitist and a snob. It's not appreciated by the little people you're trying to help. The correct approach is one which maximizes agency. This will have a wider variance of success, but will be received far better.

That's why I wrote "respectfully".

Offering aid without first having been asked for it could be considered disrespectful, condescending, etc.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#195

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #181
nugget wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going from $0 to $1M is almost impossible--going from $1M to $2M is almost inevitable. I know plenty of people who inherited money and blew it all. Very, very few people, even children from ''rich'' families, have an ''infinite money cushion''. People who come from poverty or communities rampant with discrimination often times have to work harder for opportunities. But hard work is hard work, and there is fierce co…

85% of American millionaires are self-made. Source: "The Millionaire Next Door" book.

[deleted]

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#196

Post by CJefferson »

jedmeyers wrote: post #182
CJefferson wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not clear what point you are trying to make. No-one is entirely independently successful, but there is a big gap between (for example) someone whose parents give them nothing, and someone whose parents "lend" them $1 million to get started.

It often happens that those parents in addition to $1m also "lend" a vast amount of knowledge of how certain social structures and systems work, and how to operate efficiently within them. They also can serve as a "trust provider", which is a great thing to have when executing business transactions. If given the opportunity to choose between those things and the money, I would take the "inside knowledge" every time.…

That sounds like an interesting experiment. My parents provided neither money, nor knowledge on social structures.

Personally, I'd take the money. I can learn social structures, I can't "learn" a giant pile of bootstrap money.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#197

Post by toomanybeersies »

ap22213 wrote: post #164
mikestew wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not alone - trust me. Most people don't believe me. It might help if you actually stated where you live. As it stands, you're talking about your girlfriend who "goes to a different school". Which school, and what's her name?

Loudoun county, which is ranked as the highest income county in the US.

If you're earning over $180k (which you would on the interest of $24mm), you'd be in the top 0.2% of earners for Loudoun County.

That's not middle class at all.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#198

Post by ryandrake »

ap22213 wrote: post #164
mikestew wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not alone - trust me. Most people don't believe me. It might help if you actually stated where you live. As it stands, you're talking about your girlfriend who "goes to a different school". Which school, and what's her name?

Loudoun county, which is ranked as the highest income county in the US.

I've lived in Loudoun county, VA. Your characterization of middle class in that place is totally inaccurate. There are probably less than 50 square miles on earth (if that) where a net worth of $24MM places you in the middle class.

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#199

Post by nathanasmith »

sageabilly wrote: post #79
tajen wrote: post #73

I'm in France and I sometimes notice that USA articles focus only on underpriviledged talent . Why only the talents? It's a bit like rape is fought against, except in prisons because they're lower-grade citizen. Or like articles describing unwarranted violence from the SWAT teams: "The family was playing poker, they got busted for illegal gaming, 3 died" will trigger fewer reaction than "The SWAT team killed the dog.…

"everyone needs to be saved" Unfortunately, the prevailing social zeitgeist in the US is that not everyone deserves to be saved- you have to earn the right to be deemed worthy enough to be saved, and really if you find yourself in a position where you need to be saved then it's probably your own fault and you should bootstrap your way out of it. The puritanical mindset is very, very strong and all-prevailing in the U…

>>Unfortunately, the prevailing social zeitgeist in the US is that not everyone deserves to be saved- you have to earn the right to be deemed worthy enough to be saved, and really if you find yourself in a position where you need to be saved then it's probably your own fault and you should bootstrap your way out of it. The puritanical mindset is very, very strong and all-prevailing in the US.

I wasn't sure how to parse this exactly but I was curious if you are actually correct here so I had a look at the General Social Survey[0]. The closest thing I could find to your post was the question of "EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR SELF"[1] and it looks like 67.7 percent of Americans disagree with that statement. In light of that fact, how do you defend your contrary position?

[0]http://sda.berkeley.edu/gss [1]Put EQUAL1 as the row variable then click "Run the table"

Re: Lost Diamonds: How our current system is failing underprivileged talent

#200

Post by projektir »

slackstation wrote: post #107
trjordan wrote: post #3

I wish I could remember where I read this, but I once heard it explained to me as this: It's easy to deride the journey of the rich college student: 80-hour internships at Goldman Sachs, unpaid positions in government, etc. But, the things that are done by successful people are hard, as hard as walking a tightrope. The difference is that rich students walk this tightrope over a bed of pillows. Poor students walk it o…

Respectfully, this is kinda BS. Your average American kid has already won a genetic lottery. Being born and raised in America is already great. I grew up the kid of immigrant parents from an African country and I am an immigrant myself at 5 years old. I have a great job at a major well known tech company in a technical programming position. I'm not the kid that got straight A's. I was the smart fuckup. I almost flunk…

I don't understand you talking about genetic lotteries and then using the phrase "if you have the intelligence to program".

I grew up outside of the US and I wouldn't trade that for being an average American kid at all. Being an average American kid, from what I've seen, is a lot worse than growing up in many other countries, even if overall conditions are better. There seems to be a stronger trend of immigrants making it in the US than Americans themselves making it in the US.

> I had to move back in with my parents multiple times through my twenties.

A lot of Americans have a social policy of not allowing their child to live with them past the age of 18...

Americans also assume they need to college, you skipped that entire bag of worms.

Immigrants often have advantages they don't appreciate, such as being able to see the system from the outside and simply solve it, especially given that immigrants are unusual people in general, while Americans look at the system from the inside and are molded by it, and look at it as reality itself. There are plenty of people like that in the country one immigrates from, too, but those are not the immigrants.

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