Thread: Robin Hood was a dirty crook!!! >:{

Anybody who reads maths at Cambridge and does a good job of it can make millions in the city with complete ease. Please try to deflate your collosal ego (or stop making the impression of one), I am perfectly qualified to become very rich. What're your career aspirations then? Because they hardly sound dazzling from what you said.

I personally know I won't be truly happy and fulfilled in my life unless I'm researching neuroscience. Therefore making a large amount of money is, in my case, incompatible with hapiness, contrary to your claims. That, a decent place to stay and be comfortable, somebody I love, perhaps a family; these are all I need for happiness. Money has absolutely no place there. Working my brains out in a disgustingly boring bureaucratic job with no social life for 10 years straight? That's not how you escape the 'loser' label.

Originally Posted by Xei

That, a decent place to stay and be comfortable, somebody I love, perhaps a family; these are all I need for happiness. Money has absolutely no place there.

Uh? How do you expect to support your family? I don't know what you mean by "money has no place there"; unless you plan to get your food by rummaging through dumpsters.

Originally Posted by Xei

Working my brains out in a disgustingly boring bureaucratic job with no social life for 10 years straight? That's not how you escape the 'loser' label.

Uh, yeah. Making a million isn't easy, I don't know if you expected it to be. Don't think the only way to make a mill is through a "disgustingly boring bureaucratic job", either.

While money is important, I don't think Robin Hood was really all that bad. I support taxes which put more weight on the rich than the poor to help the class gap. The hugely inequal distribution of wealth is a BAD THING. As long as the money from those taxes is passed back on to society, specifically the poor. Onto education, health care, etc. I believe many problems would be solved if the rich were taxed a lot more heavily. Nobody needs a mansion, let alone multiple mansions.

Alex, I agree that the tax laws are unjust and are tipped in the favor of the rich. I think more money SHOULD be spent on financial education and health care. We think alike in those areas. However, I disagree with you slightly when you stated "if the rich were taxed alot more heavily, many problems would be solved."

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.

Since when did just giving people things just solve problems? The problem is not the country's financial status, tax laws, economy, and/or poor finances etc... Those are merely "symptom's" of a more pressing issue: The lack of financial intelligence being taught. While growing up, I was taught things like... how much rain falls in Brazil on a yearly basis, how to dissect pigs, and what happened to so and so on some day in the past. Never was becoming financially intelligent stressed in schools, that's why people go on to graduate with a smile on their face and "I'm in debt" written across their foreheads. Since we have ego's...no one ever wants to admit it's their fault, so they blame the government and the rich for not sharing more of their money. I know our government is imperfect, the tax laws aren't the best and there are alot of sleezy rich people (just like there are alot of sleezy/negative poor people/middle class people) but the message I'm trying to illustrate here is that the solution lies within us. We can either sit on our ass and gripe about the rich and the laws or we can get off our ass and go take what's ours. In this case...money. Think that the government isn't using their money wisely or not spending enough on health care or education? Why not become a millionaire and use your money to build a hospital, or a school? A hospital whose foundation works on the rules YOU'VE set in place because YOU own it. Or a school that teaches kids financial intelligence so that they can graduate with the words "High Financial IQ" stamped across their foreheads.

To be honest, the rich are the most charitable ones on the planet (most of them anyway.) Warren Buffet is donating half of his money (about 30 billion) to the gates foundation, and the Mexican guy who now ranks (according to Forbes 2008) as the 2nd richest man in the world has re-invested about 7-8 billion dollars back into the community. I can't recall a time anyone has ever "out-donated" the rich. Frankly speaking, they (not all, remember) probably donate well over more than what they are being taxed on.

Originally Posted by wasup

Nobody needs a mansion, let alone multiple mansions.

I wholeheartedly agree. Nobody "should" need a mansion, but while we're on the topic of need...nobody really needs a car either when we have perfectly working emission free bicycles to travel to and fro on. Wealth gives you more options, that's all.

"Having just enough money to be comfortable is the most selfish thing I have ever heard. Having more than enough gives you the ability to GIVE more than enough." - Jeff

Francisco D'Aconia gives a wonderful speech about money, in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I have as an e-book, I could copypaste it but its extremely long.

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Francisco D'Aconia gives a wonderful speech about money, in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I have as an e-book, I could copypaste it but its extremely long.

Would you mind paraphrasing what the message was in the e-book? Please and Thank You.

It speaks about how money, in reality, is produced by capable men, and used as an exchange for your talent for anothers. That money is made by honest man, by using their intelligence and all their resources to produce. It is the moochers who corrupt it
http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1826
here is an excert.

"Money will always remain an effect and refuse to replace you as the cause. Money is the product of virtue, but it will not give you virtue and it will not redeem your vices. Money will not give you the unearned, neither in matter nor in spirit. Is this the root of your hatred of money?

"Or did you say it's the love of money that's the root of all evil? To love a thing is to know and love its nature. To love money is to know and love the fact that money is the creation of the best power within you, and your passkey to trade your effort for the effort of the best among men. It's the person who would sell his soul for a nickel, who is loudest in proclaiming his hatred of money--and he has good reason to hate it. The lovers of money are willing to work for it. They know they are able to deserve it.

"Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

Originally Posted by Grod

Uh? How do you expect to support your family? I don't know what you mean by "money has no place there"; unless you plan to get your food by rummaging through dumpsters.

The amount of times I said that I only wanted a reasonable amount of money to support myself and live a nice life and you've still managed to come out of it thinking I'd eat out of bins. That bears no relevance at all to what I said?

Uh, yeah. Making a million isn't easy, I don't know if you expected it to be. Don't think the only way to make a mill is through a "disgustingly boring bureaucratic job", either.

Yeah, my description really made it sound like a walk in the park, didn't it? -_-

What I said was that it's completely possible for people who are highly talented in math to become rich, but it's usually a long hard slog.

And, bearing in mind that boring is a subjective quality and one of the very small number of jobs I wouldn't consider to be boring or unrewarding is the one I'm aiming to do, how do you justify that? Give me an example of a job which I'd find fulfilling and would make me rich.

And Jeff, I'm still interested, what is your long term career plan?

Originally Posted by Xei

And Jeff, I'm still interested, what is your long term career plan?

Why? So you can laugh or shake your head and condemn a man with international vision? Forgive me for me being on edge...we didn't exactly get off on the right foot (which is partly my fault and I apologize for that). This is just a topic that's very endearing to me. However, if you are serious and would like to know, I wouldn't mind telling you.

Genuine interest, mainly because you seem to be anticipating earning a lot of money and doing interesting things with it.

Originally Posted by Xei

Genuine interest, mainly because you seem to be anticipating earning a lot of money and doing interesting things with it.

First, I want to become trained in "How to network properly" and "How to prospect successfully". Then I want to learn as much as I can about how to market effectively. All of this training will result in me starting a network marketing business of my own. After I've stabilized that business and have gotten it into profit mode, I'll start on my path to real-estate investing. My real passion though...is helping people become financially prosperous/intelligent. So I also want to be a non-profit financial advisor/financial consultant. Those are my profession goals.