This is a brilliant take on the scam of "reparations" for slavery with an actual real-world illustration of why the concept is unworkable, even if you accept the dodgy concept of generational or racial/collective guilt for history's atrocities.
In the end, absolutely no one benefited, even the con men who stole the money for themselves, because none of it was spent well.
Once again, I am reminded of the Chappelle routine--a guy buys a semi-truckload of Newports with his share.
Another good example are the results of people who win the lottery. Most of the time, their lives are destroyed, or they end up exactly back where they started before they won the lottery.
The terrible truth is, the reason people don't have money, is because using money not just responsibly, but effectively, is a skillset. And it's a skillset that poor people do not have. Worse, poor people have a different skillset that wealthier people also don't have. Different wealth classes require different kinds of skills.
As I've become middle class (from being under-class) my biggest difficulty is trying to stop "Living Poor" or "Thinking Poor" because it actually costs you money.
For example, I can live poor by saving literally everything, taking hand me down clothes, and repairing things myself. But when you keep living like that when you start getting more money coming in, you'll have money, but waste it buying tools to do things yourself or spending crazy amounts of time learning a new skill to solve a problem, or obsessing about trying to get the cheapest good rather than the best one. If you do it too much you stay poor because you don't step out of that mindset.
Meanwhile, a middle class person has to wield their money like a weapon by saving it until you have to hurl all of it at once, like maxing out your credit card to pay for a car rental and car repairs, but knowing you've saved enough to pay it off immediately. You'll also need to start thinking about how to "invest" your money as larger assets like property or homes, rather than even financial vehicles.
The skills that kept you alive in desperate times... now become your most self-sabotaging behavior. Brutal lesson. The worst is, you absolutely can't forget it. If you do, and you don't teach your kid, and they end up down there with no knowledge, they'll get stuck too! They'll have to learn everything all over again.
This is a brilliant take on the scam of "reparations" for slavery with an actual real-world illustration of why the concept is unworkable, even if you accept the dodgy concept of generational or racial/collective guilt for history's atrocities.
Once again, I am reminded of the Chappelle routine--a guy buys a semi-truckload of Newports with his share.
I haven't seen that one.
Another good example are the results of people who win the lottery. Most of the time, their lives are destroyed, or they end up exactly back where they started before they won the lottery.
The terrible truth is, the reason people don't have money, is because using money not just responsibly, but effectively, is a skillset. And it's a skillset that poor people do not have. Worse, poor people have a different skillset that wealthier people also don't have. Different wealth classes require different kinds of skills.
As I've become middle class (from being under-class) my biggest difficulty is trying to stop "Living Poor" or "Thinking Poor" because it actually costs you money.
For example, I can live poor by saving literally everything, taking hand me down clothes, and repairing things myself. But when you keep living like that when you start getting more money coming in, you'll have money, but waste it buying tools to do things yourself or spending crazy amounts of time learning a new skill to solve a problem, or obsessing about trying to get the cheapest good rather than the best one. If you do it too much you stay poor because you don't step out of that mindset.
Meanwhile, a middle class person has to wield their money like a weapon by saving it until you have to hurl all of it at once, like maxing out your credit card to pay for a car rental and car repairs, but knowing you've saved enough to pay it off immediately. You'll also need to start thinking about how to "invest" your money as larger assets like property or homes, rather than even financial vehicles.
The skills that kept you alive in desperate times... now become your most self-sabotaging behavior. Brutal lesson. The worst is, you absolutely can't forget it. If you do, and you don't teach your kid, and they end up down there with no knowledge, they'll get stuck too! They'll have to learn everything all over again.
This is a really perceptive comment. Thanks.
No problem, I hope it helps people.