My 1st job was minimum wage. I was 15. My mom took me to the bank with my 1st weeks pay. I put $100 in the bank and spent $7. It was great having money as a teenager.

Here people work hard and long hours in manufacturing. It pays a lot better than people think. The key is to invest the money instead of pissing it away. My neighborhood has modest homes but a lot of my neighbors have more than 1 house. Most have supplement rental income.

I was raised to accomplish things and then be able to relax when older. I have friends who make a lot of money but spend it all and then some.

my first job a summer job when I was 14, I worked at the Canadian National Exhibition ( think of an amusement park) my job was to unload trucks and carry stuff animals to the different vendors on the ground.

Minimum wage, my Grandpa taught me at an early age, Save , live on less and invest, from 14 to 19 money went into the bank, earned interest, and at 19 invested part of that in equities and bonds and grew from there.

Yes I know miss harmony will say that is an outlier you had someone to teach you blah blah blah.

Yes, but I was a product of a two parent system, grandparents in a two parent system and that whole working class structure.

My grandparents didnt go to college, my dad dropped out of college but did well in his business and my mom did graduate university and was a teacher until she retired a few years ago.

Sacrifices her parents ( my grandparents)made, my grandparents came from the Dominican republic poor as poor can be but within 20 years of arriving they had a house, 3 kids all of them college/university gradates in a socialist but business friendly country in Canada, and lived a pretty comfortable life, did I mention they didnt speak english well when they first arrived, but learned the language well.

My point they had the burning desire to succeed, something that is missing in today's culture for the most part.

everyone has their own unique combination of cirumstances that set the stage for their story

thanks for sharing yours

but keep in mind, better outcome does not equal a better character ora more 'deserving' person

and everyone does not have the same COMBINATION of circumstances to mount those outcomes by ...

miss harmony , they have equal opportunity and that is what makes western society unique and the best places to live.

If we were in China , good luck.
Cuba even worse, in Cuba Ive read where a taxi cab driver earns more than doctor,that would never happen in North America or any 1st world society.

Where my grandparents are from in the Dominican republic, is a prime example of an unequal society

People our respective countries dont know how good they have it, I highly encourage those spoiled ungrateful people to live in Mexico in a village not the city ,but a village for 3 months and see what they think after.

3 months of living with no hot water, no air conditioning, not much of a selection in food, but a clean house, and come back to America, I guarantee they will kissing the ground and say thank God for such a society.

I know I do that every time I come back from the Dominican after visiting relatives and I say thank you Canada, I love you.

My neighbor owned 9 homes. He couldn't read or write. He is dead now. He must have been dyslexic and back then kids didn't get special help. He had a love for doing business.

A love and desire to do business even though he couldn't read or write, this is the kind of story that is the norm for past generations, they didn't feel sorry for themselves and say life is unfair, so and so has more money, education, looks, height blah blah blah.

He hunkered down and said Im going for it and **** those that think I cant ,this is one of the things I admired about the past generation, they had the mentality of If its to be its up to me.

Good thing he didn't start out today because the left would have said, hey you're a white man that cannot read or right, that is your problem and sorry you are own your own no white privilege for you

or course.

im not sure if I posted it elsewhere, but it is great how many make it 'in spite of inequalities, but I will never believe that to be reason to not work at drawing attention to the inequalities in an attempt to make them better.


I admire the attitude 'it could be worse' as a coping mechanism to continue striving, but not as an excuse to give up trying to make it better or aknowledging it can be.

but some people no matter how much opportunity is presented to them they will never prosper.

I think it takes living in a country and seeing both sides of life, I know my grandparents have told me many times and Ive seen because Ive visited the Dominican how life can be rough.

Which is why I take nothing for granted , Its funny that immigrants that come to America ( legally ) with nothing, and within 10 years made something of themselves.

And if you talk to them , none of them have this victim's mentality like some on the left have.

inequality has to exist for a society to function, too much inequality isn't good either, but those that want to get out we should give them a hand or an opportunity, but what do we do about those who are lazy.

yep, some people.

Its funny that many dont understand the US immigrant system. the days when 'immigrants come with nothing 'are long gone. Part of the requirement to immigrate is that either you have means, or someone with 'something' sponsors you somehow.

there is also money given to people coming with business ideas to HELP get those ideas started.

its just not so simple as making something out of nothing, or at least it very very rarely is.

I dont believe people are simply lazy. I believe everyone just is motivated by different things and in different ways, kind of how people learn in different ways (visual, linguistic, kinesthetic)

some people are driven to act by money, some are driven to act by non tangible rewards like assisting other people or making life better for others, some are driven by a passion for a certain talent like art or music or creating things or building things ....et cetera.

I could not get my son to wash a dish growing up, but he has had and kept a TSA job from the time he graduated high school, because he is money motivated.

I know someone else who travels the world doing dentistry here and there, and surviving on not alot, because she is driven more by the sense of helping others than by earning money.

give people the right incentive, and its amazing what they can come up with and what efforts they will put in. Just telling people to settle for whatever anyone else wants to offer them for some sense of 'self respect' is not a motivator for many,

for many, it is the opposite, and it tells them not to place ANY value upon themself for themself, but to solely leave that assessment to strangers instead.

no, some people are just lazy, they dont want to work, laziness motivates them.

they would rather whine and complain vs doing something, look at some of the occupy wall street protesters.

They found the time to protest, camp out and squat in the parks but cant find the time to find a job even at retail who is always hiring?

well the economy is set up to HAVE a certain number always unemployed, people have various schedules and some even have holidays or times off, so who is to say the employment status of someone merely because they attend a protest, or that they should be only looking for work 24/7 if they are unemployed and not have any time to do anything else?


people all have a price, they will negotiate their time and effort, among other things, if you meet their price ...

miss harmony please,

are you telling me that all the occupy wall street protesters that protested were on their holidays and days off?

really?

all the capitalists I know hates Trudeau, and we would never think of protesting on our days off, my protest would be make as much money and use legal tax shelters and give him less of my money.

that is my protest.

If the occupy wall street protesters were serious, they would have protested on Capitol hill where the real power is.

I didnt watch those crowds 24/7 to keep track of each individuals time there, so Im saying there is no reason to ASSUME that unemployment was the characteristic that led to people attending, or that people that were unemployed should have therefore not attended.

and again, its not up to me to dictate which way someone else should choose to protest or where, there are too many to choose from.

if they weren't unemployed or underemployed why else would they be protesting?

I hate our country's bill c 16 restriction of certain speech, am I going to protest on Bay Street where all the power brokers and financial services are on my day off?

The answer is Hell no and Im not protesting.

I will protest other ways with my money and I love it when political parties fund raise and they come to my business or home and I tell them I would never ever give one dime to the Liberal party

I tell them Bill c 16 and your other idiotic laws

bye

that is how YOU would protest, its not the only way to protest or the way everyone else must feel obligated to.

and what does employment have to do with choosing to protest something? People have bills to pay.

because employed people generally dont protest while they are working, even on their days off, Its kind of ridiculous to believe if they were employed that they all go down to protest greed on Wall street and capitalism

that is just twisted logic.

I guess I should have protested when Lebrons Cav's swept my Raptors in the second round of the playoffs, I should have led a group to protest in front of the U.S. embassy on my days off of course and since Ive never worked on a Sunday I will spend my day there.

what do you think?

So lets stick to the topic

the other day Trump tweeted out that the main street media is America's biggest enemy because of their coverage of his summit with the North Korea dictator.

When Trump wins re election it wont be because of the media but they will be responsible for him getting re elected because of the constant bad press and poor reporting.

It seems to me when American parents commit a crime their children are placed in foster care by Child Protection Services. These parent(s) illegally crossing the boarder are breaking federal immigration laws so why should they be treated better than American citizens? Surely the democrat's and news media understand this practice. So this seems to be another political maneuver to make the president look bad.

Democrats are losing their (legal) supporters because they aren't working for the American people anymore. They are working toward getting all these illegals the right to vote.
If they have taken 500 kids in the past few weeks, we have a serious problem with illegals flooding into our country. They need to do more than take their kids to deter them.

I've always believed the protesters are unemployed also. People who work understand the value of a day off. People have things to do on their day off to keep their lives going. Most people have kids, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, car to wash, and maybe take a nap. I personally believe they should cut out any welfare benefit that a protester is receiving because they should be out looking for work. .

you keep assuming that everyone else should have your priorities and interests


people can go to a protest, especially in local venues, for an hour or two hours or stay a day, the same way they may attend a seminar, or a festival, or any other EVENT that brings out large numbers of people. Just because some here are not particularly social activists, doesnt mean that other WORKING individuals therefore aren't either. People turn out to VOTE because they think its important, activists turn out for protest with that same sense of priority.