Do you think its hard to make money in America?
Malcolm_X
Posts: 93
This may sound rather arrogant, but I was reading this book "Threshold Resistance by Alfred Taubman.....he's a billionaire who got into some legal trouble, I saw him on Charlie Rose a while back and he seems like a pretty reasonable guy, so I read his book at the library without having checked it out because I owe late fees.
But anyway he said it one sentence "It's reletively easy to make money in America." I mean he's a guy who went from nothing to a few billion dollars, but I kinda believe him. I believe if your willing to work hard and you got a brain, you can make some good money in America, I mean there are people who come to America and they take advantage of what we have to offer, and they make it big.
But anyway he said it one sentence "It's reletively easy to make money in America." I mean he's a guy who went from nothing to a few billion dollars, but I kinda believe him. I believe if your willing to work hard and you got a brain, you can make some good money in America, I mean there are people who come to America and they take advantage of what we have to offer, and they make it big.
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I have to agree with this. My husband is an Architect, went to a great school, and still doesn't make good money! Architecture is such a difficult thing. It requires such hard work, and intelligence. Architects are very very underpaid.
Unless you own your firm, or you are a partner at a huge famous firm, you are never going to make "a lot" of money. Its just crap if you ask me.
I also have a good friend with a PhD in Fungi. He is a scientist at the Field Museum in Chicago. He makes CRAP! He is insanely smart and dedicated to his line of work.
I would also like to think that I have a decent brain in my head, but I am interested in Art and Education. Being a teacher in the future isn't going to allow me to roll in the dough, and being an Artist so far hasn't made me rich.
Sure, I could make a lot of money doing certain things, but I am not interested in selling out for money.
exactly. scientists, professors, engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, artists, anyone with very advanced degrees...I mean some doctors and lawyers can have a lot of money, but for the most part it's nothing like big business. You can make a LOT of money with out even having a college degree. if you have a PhD, you have a pretty low chance of making a LOT of money. I'm stressing a LOT because it depends how much we're talking here...if you want a comfortable middle-to-upper middle class life, sure any of these professions are probably for you. but in terms of like BIG money, that goes to people with luck, or lack of morals, or some other weird characteristic that is independent of hard work or intelligence.
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That's a very interesting observation.
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I'd say you've got your own answer if you can't afford to check a book out of the library!
But my answer is that it is ridiculously easy if you're not afraid to work....which lots of people are in my opinion.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
What do you think of the intelligence of people who make sweeping generalizations?
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
There is a difference between 'highly intelligent' people who are book smart and 'highly intelligent' who are street smart. The street smart people make more money because they fall into more of a business career where they can sell themselves and make more money.
I don't feel that a PHD or anything along those lines makes you 'highly intelligent'. I've met some fucking dumb people who are highly educated. They can rip any point of interest from their field but in matters of common sense they have no clue. I'm not saying that's everyone but some.
I've met people who never went to college who I consider some of the smartest people I know.
Just because you have a piece of paper showing your level of education it doesn't make you "smart".
As for doctors and lawyers being poor?! What the hell? Doctors over here can easily earn £90k+ after 10 years in the job. Sure there's plenty of training and debt before hand but it more than pays back for it in the end. Lawyers always make big business, the only problem now is it's a saturated market because there are so many greedy people out there. I'm sure some people must be in law for the passion, but I'm willing to bet a majority are in it for the money. In Science it is hard to make big big money (about the only way to earn a 6 figure salary is to go into scientific patent law), but it isn't hard to make a comfortable living out of it. Going to museums and other low budget businesses is always going to have poor pay, need to get in research or academic lecturing for the bigger wages. Not huge, but definitely comfortable.
It's all about being aware of the business place and the career you're getting into. Of course the only way to make millions in salary is to own a mega business or become a celebrity, but no one needs a salary that big. Personally I'd count rich as anything earning over £50k a year. I'd never set my sights up to the millions because that's obviously unrealistic. Not everyone can be that rich and it's impossible to plan to be that rich, it either works out or it doesn't.
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I disagree. It's all about living within your own means. A lot of Americans have/want the biggest and the best material things (cars, homes, electronics, clothes, vacations)....even if they can't afford them. Unfortunately, America makes is VERY easy to live way outside your means, which is why there are more and more young adults right out of college in HUGE debt, thanks to things like Credit Card companies and Loan Approvals. It doesn't take a rocket scientists to know that a person can't afford a $300,000 home on $50,000 a year...but these people get approved for the home loans like that everyday....and then we wonder why the real estate market has bottomed out over the past 6 months!
So while people are living paycheck to paycheck trying to keep up with their neighbors and friends socially, they aren't saving a dime! Personally, I think if you are in your late 20's or early 30's and you're not saving at least 25-30% of your pay (either in 401(k)'s, IRA's or some type of investment with a reliable return) per year, you're gonna come up short in retirement. I'm 27 years old, I'm not banking on Social Security being there when I retire.....if it is, that's great, I'll live better in retirement than I do now, if not, I can continue to live like I am. I have friends my age or older, that don't even save 10%.....and I just can't fathom why they don't!
Anyway, got a little off topic there. I did read something a few years ago about it being harder to become a self made millionaire today, than it was 25 years ago.
Well, obviously, for a lot of those professions there is only so much money they can make. Unless they have side projects they're working on, they're not making billions of dollars, because they can't in their given profession. They took the "safe" route. They used their intelligence to get an advanced degree and have settled into their chosen profession. People who are making billions of dollars are those who never settled. They've gone the business route and took risks.
Yeah, 'cause Bill Gates is a real idiot.
I agree with this statement. Granted people that are willing to work as hard as it takes sometimes choose fields that do not provide them the opportunity to make a great deal of money. As long as their long term goals don't include being financially secure soley off of their salary they shoudl be fine. If they are looking to make a fortune and are hard workers yet choose a field with a low maximum income potetial, how smart could they be? Lord knows it's not my life ambition to sell real estate, but it does provide me with the funds I need to take the next step. I think some people only focus on the short term and are blinded with regards to long term planning.
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What they need is a tax rebate.
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I can't tell you how many people I run across who have zero motivation. Who want to make tons of money on a 40 hour work week. It doesn't happen!
The work/life balance is a difficult thing if you want to make money. The more money you want to make, the more time you have to spend dedicated to a job. You have to be a go-getter, looking for opportunities. It's a mindset and not an easy one to get into if you think something should just come to you (or be handed) or, if you have a sense of instant gratification.
But, if you look at a lot of people with a large degree of higher education (phd's - but the non medical - more research types) or degrees of that nature, they are in it for a deep sense of love for what they do. A passion if you will. Sometimes the passion IS the money for people like that.
And with saying that making money comes a serious amount of dedication and TIME, you have to make sacrifices. Mainly family, friends and lovers. Time with them, being attached to a phone, clients, meetings, email - being on the top of your game all the time. And having a partner in life that can accept that is very difficult - hence the sacrifices.
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I've always lived by the adage that University is where former A students teach B students to work for C students.
I'm an engineer and I make good money but I'll never be rich.
Doctors and Lawyers may not earn the very absolute pinnacle of wealth but they can live very comfortably indeed without any money worries. The extra money wouldn't help them do anything more than buy more luxuries they don't need. There's no point trying to paint them out to be victims of society. If there is a skilled trade that is underpaid it's teaching.
I guess I'm trying to say that the skilled 'intelligent' careers pay well enough to live comfortably and that's all anyone can ever hope for. Businessmen and the big leaguers earn excessive amounts of money that doesn't really make living any easier. Trying to compare the two to make logical conclusions on how society treats 'intelligent' careers is pointless, those careers are in no way underpaid, they're just NOT excessively overpaid like in big business.
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im gonna apply for a loaan i think and buy all the cds i need for my singing collection and also for my art collection
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Don't be a social worker that cares about social change and ends up banging ones head against a wall.
Don't be a social worker who thinks you can effect the most change by working hard to change poilicies that effect a lot of people instead of effecting individual change one lost soul at a time.
Don't attend SUNY Stony Brook Graduate School of Social Welfare and concentrate in planning administration and research. Concentrate in direct practice.
If you have any desire to ever be a social worker resign yourself to the fact that you will have to do therapy in order to make any kind of dough if you are female. Males can move up in SW administration MUCH quicker than females because there are sooooo few of them.
Looking back I am not so happy I chose the field I have and hope to someday make drastic changes to my career path. It's just hard as I am sooo stereotyped at this point in my career.
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That's the easiest way for someone to make money in this country IMO.
Female social workers make money by marrying into it. I wouldn't ever tell anyone looking to make money to go into social work
as for the question,
I don't think it's hard to make money in America. I think education is the key to making enough money to be independent and you need at least a college degree.
I think people that become super rich are entrepreneurs or good at saving money, or a combination of both. People are very good at racking up debt and it's too easy to rack that up, btwn student loans, credit cards, ..etc
And I think anyone that makes a lot of money has to work very hard for it.
There's also the question of what someone thinks "alot" of money is. Like over $100k? My cousin is a doctor. She makes what I think is a lot of money. I have a friend that works in IT. He also make what I think is a lot of money.
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Anyone can make money if that's your focus and it's important to you. I think this guy is absolutely right.
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funny, that's quite an ignorant comment to make imo. i know many *highly intelligent* people as you call it, and yes......they are interested in making money. maybe not to be *obscenely rich*....but what difference does that make? personally i don't think *dumb* people make it rich, just people with different priorities perhaps.
that comment just rubbed me the wrong way - sounded VERY elitist imo.
and back on topic - i think you can make money in almost all industrialized countries, not just america......for the exact reasons you mention: hard work and some smarts. even some who are not *book smart* can do well for themselves, education alone is not the only barometer.....but having both definitely helps. more than anything though, i think you need the real drive to succeed if you TRULY want to be that financially successful. i don't have that drive, i simply don't have the interest. my father had that drive, but he was also an immigrant...and i think oftentimes coming from a background of hardship makes some more driven to succeed financially, provide for their family, get them the opportunities for education, etc.
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