This morning I took a bike ride around my little town. Its a small suburban town outside of West Palm Beach.
My "Village" as they call it is unique in that it has a good variety of strata of middle class. You have one area where wealthy people such as Tiger Woods and Jack Welch live.
Then you have the middle class area, where I live. The homes on the water sell for 1-2 million, the homes on the Golf Corse sell for $500,000 to maybe $800,000, and you have the homes that abut each other that sell for about $150,000 to $500,000.
So we have an interesting mix, I know a lot of people and I know there houses and what they do for a living and a lot of information about who they are and where they come from.
I do not know a single family that lives on the water that was not born in a privileged environment. They paid for their homes with down payments provided from their parents, and most have jobs that their parents got them or don't work in traditional jobs. I do not know a single one that built what they have on their own. They, almost all, feel entitled to what they have! I don't begrudge them what they have, I simply want an honest prospective of how people got where they are in this nation. I want to use that perspective to evaluate how to structure our system so that hard working people have opportunity to have something to show for it financially. I want to evaluate where people are coming from when they talk about our entitlement system. These people on the water feel entitled to what they have even though it was mostly given to them. I agree with them to an extent, they are entitled to it, someone rightfully gave it to them.
I live on the golf course. My grandparents paid for my prep school education and undergraduate work. My father lent me $53,000 for law school and the government lent me another $83,000. I paid my father back and still pay the government. I inherited about $35,000 from various relatives. I was given a LOT, so again don't get me wrong, I am not self made. I used all of that to get experience as a lawyer, my first job as a lawyer paid $26,500. I finally opened my own firm and through various machinations I got where I am. I've worked hard.
I have a guy who works for me around the house. He has worked harder than I ever have in my entire life. His father was a drunk who hit him. His mother is a sweet uneducated very poor woman. Lets call this guy Sam. Sam in not intelligent or educated. He does not read, or write. He's a little older than me, I guess he's 48. Sam works hard every day, he takes Sunday morning off to go to church. (He always tries to get me to go with him.) Sam and I both have three kids. He rents a small apartment, with the money some neighbors and I pay him to do odd jobs. Sometimes Sam and his kids suffer without clothing they need or school supplies they need. Sam does not have a car, he rides his bike to the neighborhood with a huge vacuum cleaner balanced on the handle bars and a buffer in the basket behind the seat. This guy feels no sense of entitlement to anything but the money I agree to pay him, and sometimes he asks for lunch when he is doing an all day project at my house.
I personally think we need a system that will give Sam an opportunity to live better than those who do not work as hard as him.
My "Village" as they call it is unique in that it has a good variety of strata of middle class. You have one area where wealthy people such as Tiger Woods and Jack Welch live.
Then you have the middle class area, where I live. The homes on the water sell for 1-2 million, the homes on the Golf Corse sell for $500,000 to maybe $800,000, and you have the homes that abut each other that sell for about $150,000 to $500,000.
So we have an interesting mix, I know a lot of people and I know there houses and what they do for a living and a lot of information about who they are and where they come from.
I do not know a single family that lives on the water that was not born in a privileged environment. They paid for their homes with down payments provided from their parents, and most have jobs that their parents got them or don't work in traditional jobs. I do not know a single one that built what they have on their own. They, almost all, feel entitled to what they have! I don't begrudge them what they have, I simply want an honest prospective of how people got where they are in this nation. I want to use that perspective to evaluate how to structure our system so that hard working people have opportunity to have something to show for it financially. I want to evaluate where people are coming from when they talk about our entitlement system. These people on the water feel entitled to what they have even though it was mostly given to them. I agree with them to an extent, they are entitled to it, someone rightfully gave it to them.
I live on the golf course. My grandparents paid for my prep school education and undergraduate work. My father lent me $53,000 for law school and the government lent me another $83,000. I paid my father back and still pay the government. I inherited about $35,000 from various relatives. I was given a LOT, so again don't get me wrong, I am not self made. I used all of that to get experience as a lawyer, my first job as a lawyer paid $26,500. I finally opened my own firm and through various machinations I got where I am. I've worked hard.
I have a guy who works for me around the house. He has worked harder than I ever have in my entire life. His father was a drunk who hit him. His mother is a sweet uneducated very poor woman. Lets call this guy Sam. Sam in not intelligent or educated. He does not read, or write. He's a little older than me, I guess he's 48. Sam works hard every day, he takes Sunday morning off to go to church. (He always tries to get me to go with him.) Sam and I both have three kids. He rents a small apartment, with the money some neighbors and I pay him to do odd jobs. Sometimes Sam and his kids suffer without clothing they need or school supplies they need. Sam does not have a car, he rides his bike to the neighborhood with a huge vacuum cleaner balanced on the handle bars and a buffer in the basket behind the seat. This guy feels no sense of entitlement to anything but the money I agree to pay him, and sometimes he asks for lunch when he is doing an all day project at my house.
I personally think we need a system that will give Sam an opportunity to live better than those who do not work as hard as him.
