|
Edited on Sun Feb-13-11 04:12 PM by SoCalDem
The old adage of bootstrapping/out-thinking the competition as a way to win the American Dream Lottery, is an option for fewer and fewer people.
Where once a low-to-mid range job, & frugality was an entry into "middle class" and a sustaining factor once there, that is no longer the way we live here.
Last week a friend of our won $38,400.00 on a penny-slot machine at a local casino.
She works at a $10.50 an hour job (she's 58). Her husband is also 58 and is laid off. Before the judgmental-Judys pile on, the only reason they went was because that Casino sent her a "birthday $20 coupon" & free buffet". They used to go to the casino from time to time until he was laid off. This time they went for the free dinner & to gamble with the small amount they added to that $20.. It was her birthday present:)
On the 4th play of the machine, she hit the big one:) She thought she had won $384.00 and was ecstatic. She was surprised to see all the confusion around her until her husband said. "I think you won $3,840.00".. What they both missed was the fact that she was at a "times 10" level, so she won the big jackpot for that machine. (Excited winners often lose math skills, temporarily:) )
Anyway, that money (taxes were withheld) gave them enough of a boost that they no longer have to worry themselves sick over the monthly bills (they rent), and made her husband a little less depressed over the lay off. It allowed them to get new tires for her car, and to have money in the bank.
These people are like most people probably. They have worked all their lives, and worked hard. Her jobs have always been retail, and his have always been factory work..dirty work, and his health has suffered for it. They are years away from SS & Medicare and they are still scraping along...never quite ahead enough to rest easily.
They got lucky..this one time, and it may make enough of a difference to make their lives better for a pretty long time.
How many others (Casinos aside) will NEVER get lucky?
They are the rest of us who just plod along , day by day, putting one foot in front of the other. We struggle month to month, praying that we don't run out of money before we run out of month.
You can have the best business idea ever, but if you cannot finance it, you are dead meat. Entrepreneurship depends on people being ABLE to take that chance on their ideas, but if you are always worried about where the money for the next electricity bill will come from, you are a lot less likely to start a business. If you have a family, you will probably have to work FOR someone, and pray that they like you and need you and will offer you health care .
If you win the gene-pool lottery, and are lucky enough to be born into wealth, you will probably do just fine, but for the rest of us, it's always a gamble, whether we are at a casino or a desk or an assembly line.
edited to add.. Her son was one of the soldiers in Iraq, that DUers sent care packages to a while back:)
He came back safe & sound, and was very appreciative for all the goodies we sent to his little group of soldier-friends.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
