The Loser's Dream

[The Good Reverend Roger]

There's a certain type of person who, while residing at the bottom of the shit heap, will support the worst depredations of those on the top, even when those depredations directly fuck him/her over.  They do this because they have been sold on the idea that they are "pre-rich", that anyone can get wealthy in America™, and they don't want to fuck things up for when THEY somehow get wealthy.

They won't ever get rich, of course (and their idea of HOW to get rich is pretty nebulous, and can be summed up by the word "innovation", by people who have never had an original idea in their lives.), but that isn't what makes them losers.  What makes them losers is that they want to be rich OR poor in a system in which the rich needlessly fuck the poor.

This is Pinkdom, and all Pinks are losers by definition.

The people I want around me are the people who want to help those further down the shit heap than they are, that sometimes DO help those less fortunate than themselves.  I can even tolerate people that don't even do THAT, but at least don't deliberately piss down the heap, though I don't really consider such people "friends".

Humans are a pack-oriented species, and thus we built society.  But society has, over the last few thousand years, fallen into the hands of primates that believe that having enough bananas isn't good enough.  No, they must have ALL the bananas...And they must see the other primates starve, or the bananas just don't taste as good.

And while they may be losers on a certain scale, they aren't stupid.  No, they have managed to sell a great number of less successful losers on the "free market", the idea that if they abolish what rules DO exist to protect the poor, then the poor will all get rich...Or at least THEY will.  They all consider themselves The Survivor Type.

If they WERE The Survivor Type, of course, they'd already be rich.  The system is rigged in such a manner that there has NEVER been a better time to get rich, and it must be noted that some people DO go from poverty to wealth.  But the losers braying about the free market aren't rich, because they believe in a free market, while the people that DO get rich do so because they see the market for what it really is and deal with it accordingly.  Under no circumstances will the former group ever be rich because, in addition to being losers, they are schmucks.  Suckers.  Marks.

And while they may dream great dreams of getting rich and fucking the little guy, that's all they'll do...Dream.  Oh, and they'll do so while they're being fucked by people who actually ARE what they think they are.

Or Kill Me.

(editing)

[LMNO]

What makes them losers is that they want to be rich OR poor in a system in which the rich needlessly fuck the poor.

Oh, man.  How I wish I could staple that onto the foreheads of some of the people I know.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What makes them losers is that they want to be rich OR poor in a system in which the rich needlessly fuck the poor.

Oh, man.  How I wish I could staple that onto the foreheads of some of the people I know.

Wouldn't help.  You can't cure that condition, the only proof of which I need offer is the hordes of poor old people protesting the very idea of universal health care.

CLUE TO THE CLUELESS:  If you aren't rich by age 70, you will never be rich.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Also, this may seem like "preaching to the converted", but it's actually more of a "I can't get to the place I want to put this from work, so I'm writing it HERE to cut & paste THERE later tonight" sort of thing.

 

[LMNO]

No, I think your previous post upthread was more accurate.  This would sound like gobbledygook to the people it's intended for, so this is the only audience you can speak to.

[Eater of Clowns]

What makes them losers is that they want to be rich OR poor in a system in which the rich needlessly fuck the poor.

Oh, man.  How I wish I could staple that onto the foreheads of some of the people I know.

This.  This is a very, very good line.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

No, I think your previous post upthread was more accurate.  This would sound like gobbledygook to the people it's intended for, so this is the only audience you can speak to.

Oh, no, I wasn't writing this for the HFT/GiM crowd.  I'm writing it for the Subgenius crowd.  I've been doing a lot of ranting over at Scrubgenius, these days.

And this isn't a "FUCK YOU GUISE" thing.  I'm over being mad about the whole perpetual lurker thing, you know, get mad at the sun for rising.  It's more that some rants are more appropriate there than here, but I can't get there from this comp.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

What makes them losers is that they want to be rich OR poor in a system in which the rich needlessly fuck the poor.

Oh, man.  How I wish I could staple that onto the foreheads of some of the people I know.

This.  This is a very, very good line.

I've been trying to think of how to say that for about 10 years.

[P3nT4gR4m]

What makes them losers is that they want to be rich OR poor in a system in which the rich needlessly fuck the poor.

Oh, man.  How I wish I could staple that onto the foreheads of some of the people I know.

This.  This is a very, very good line.

I've been trying to think of how to say that for about 10 years.

Personally I think you've managed to say it a good few times but never so succinctly. So what's the alternative? Whether you're rich or aspiring to be rich you're buying into the con. The rich are as bad off as the poor in a lot of ways. Specifically because it's never enough. Doesn't matter how much they have or don't have, they're junkies, hooked on more - slaves to the impossible dream of having all the fucking bananas and unable to rest or be happy with what they have.

I'd preach the gospel of "ENOUGH" but who the fuck would listen and why the fuck should I care? I have enough. It's not much but it's enough. "Enough for what?" they might ask if they weren't too busy trying to work out how to get their hands on all my bananas. The answer, if they bothered to listen, is - enough to live my life like I fucking mean it and take every little thing that smells like fun TO THE FUCKING WALL!!! Instead of pissing my life away chasing boring yellow fruit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I love this, and I want you to post it on Facebook in a format I can "share", so as to piss a multitude of people off.

I would add that if you weren't BORN with money, you'll never have money. Rags-to-riches happens occasionally, but rarely enough that it has to be considered a freak phenomenon and the result not so much of hard work and intelligence, but of incredible good luck. Consider this: If you just look at the numbers, your odds of starting working-class and EVER having a net worth over two million dollars are higher if you play the lottery than if you work hard and have a genius IQ. Yes, if you work hard and have a genius IQ, you may very well go to a good school, get a PhD, and a job that nets maybe $70-$140k/year. But in order to make much more than that, you have to work in business or finance, and have connections. Most such "connections" aren't just college connections (and if you're a poor kid, you probably won't get into a college where you'll make wealth-making connections, no matter how smart and skilled you are, because you don't already have connections, and if you do, you might make friends from rich families, but remember... you aren't "from a good family", so you aren't anyone the people who are care about "making connections" with), they're family connections. So you, poor kid, will not very likely make any great strides in making a fortune in the financial sector.
 
Where poor kids can really get ahead, and even become famous after a fashion, in the way that nerds contemplate fame, is in science research. In science, and in academia in general, you can be nobody and excel through hard work and brilliance. If you are a truly remarkable engineer or biochemist you might eventually top $200k/year. That's a LOT of money to a poor kid, but guess what... it doesn't put you in the ranks of the rich. Not even close. You will have enough, in a very real sense... and if the market is in an uptick, you may even invest enough to reap fat dividends from rich people screwing poor people, and leave a sizable inheritance to your kids. It might... MIGHT... even be enough to launch them from upper-middle-class to rich, if they know people and invest it well... but that's incredibly unlikely. They might put it into a retirement fund, and hopefully they followed your lead and have good degrees, and you will have elevated generations of your descendants into the middle class. But that's it.
 
The sad thing is, there's more than enough wealth for every single one of us to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, and enough left over for some people to be rich. Just not SUPER-rich. But who actually needs to be super-rich? What's the benefit?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

In my first sociology class, there was a guy who was in college because he wanted to "get rich". He was in community college. That was his goal... nothing more specific than "in business or something".

[P3nT4gR4m]

I love this, and I want you to post it on Facebook in a format I can "share", so as to piss a multitude of people off.

I would add that if you weren't BORN with money, you'll never have money. Rags-to-riches happens occasionally, but rarely enough that it has to be considered a freak phenomenon and the result not so much of hard work and intelligence, but of incredible good luck. Consider this: If you just look at the numbers, your odds of starting working-class and EVER having a net worth over two million dollars are higher if you play the lottery than if you work hard and have a genius IQ. Yes, if you work hard and have a genius IQ, you may very well go to a good school, get a PhD, and a job that nets maybe $70-$140k/year. But in order to make much more than that, you have to work in business or finance, and have connections. Most such "connections" aren't just college connections (and if you're a poor kid, you probably won't get into a college where you'll make wealth-making connections, no matter how smart and skilled you are, because you don't already have connections, and if you do, you might make friends from rich families, but remember... you aren't "from a good family", so you aren't anyone the people who are care about "making connections" with), they're family connections. So you, poor kid, will not very likely make any great strides in making a fortune in the financial sector.
 
Where poor kids can really get ahead, and even become famous after a fashion, in the way that nerds contemplate fame, is in science research. In science, and in academia in general, you can be nobody and excel through hard work and brilliance. If you are a truly remarkable engineer or biochemist you might eventually top $200k/year. That's a LOT of money to a poor kid, but guess what... it doesn't put you in the ranks of the rich. Not even close. You will have enough, in a very real sense... and if the market is in an uptick, you may even invest enough to reap fat dividends from rich people screwing poor people, and leave a sizable inheritance to your kids. It might... MIGHT... even be enough to launch them from upper-middle-class to rich, if they know people and invest it well... but that's incredibly unlikely. They might put it into a retirement fund, and hopefully they followed your lead and have good degrees, and you will have elevated generations of your descendants into the middle class. But that's it.
 
The sad thing is, there's more than enough wealth for every single one of us to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, and enough left over for some people to be rich. Just not SUPER-rich. But who actually needs to be super-rich? What's the benefit?

I thing one of the main advantages of being born rich is that, from day one, you are conditioned with that sense of "entitlement" which is really just a nice way of saying "no qualms about exploiting the poor". It's almost a kind of selective sociopathy. To see most of society as servants or somehow less than human.

In the case of a poor or working class person this would be a pathology.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I love this, and I want you to post it on Facebook in a format I can "share", so as to piss a multitude of people off.

I would add that if you weren't BORN with money, you'll never have money. Rags-to-riches happens occasionally, but rarely enough that it has to be considered a freak phenomenon and the result not so much of hard work and intelligence, but of incredible good luck. Consider this: If you just look at the numbers, your odds of starting working-class and EVER having a net worth over two million dollars are higher if you play the lottery than if you work hard and have a genius IQ. Yes, if you work hard and have a genius IQ, you may very well go to a good school, get a PhD, and a job that nets maybe $70-$140k/year. But in order to make much more than that, you have to work in business or finance, and have connections. Most such "connections" aren't just college connections (and if you're a poor kid, you probably won't get into a college where you'll make wealth-making connections, no matter how smart and skilled you are, because you don't already have connections, and if you do, you might make friends from rich families, but remember... you aren't "from a good family", so you aren't anyone the people who are care about "making connections" with), they're family connections. So you, poor kid, will not very likely make any great strides in making a fortune in the financial sector.
 
Where poor kids can really get ahead, and even become famous after a fashion, in the way that nerds contemplate fame, is in science research. In science, and in academia in general, you can be nobody and excel through hard work and brilliance. If you are a truly remarkable engineer or biochemist you might eventually top $200k/year. That's a LOT of money to a poor kid, but guess what... it doesn't put you in the ranks of the rich. Not even close. You will have enough, in a very real sense... and if the market is in an uptick, you may even invest enough to reap fat dividends from rich people screwing poor people, and leave a sizable inheritance to your kids. It might... MIGHT... even be enough to launch them from upper-middle-class to rich, if they know people and invest it well... but that's incredibly unlikely. They might put it into a retirement fund, and hopefully they followed your lead and have good degrees, and you will have elevated generations of your descendants into the middle class. But that's it.
 
The sad thing is, there's more than enough wealth for every single one of us to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, and enough left over for some people to be rich. Just not SUPER-rich. But who actually needs to be super-rich? What's the benefit?

I thing one of the main advantages of being born rich is that, from day one, you are conditioned with that sense of "entitlement" which is really just a nice way of saying "no qualms about exploiting the poor". It's almost a kind of selective sociopathy. To see most of society as servants or somehow less than human.

In the case of a poor or working class person this would be a pathology.

Yes, exactly. It's only antisocial if you act against members of your OWN society... and people in different class divisions exist in different societies.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I love this, and I want you to post it on Facebook in a format I can "share", so as to piss a multitude of people off.

No problem.  But I'm going to give it the weekend over at Scrubgenius first, if it's all the same to everyone.

Then we can blast it where ever it will do the most good.

[P3nT4gR4m]

I love this, and I want you to post it on Facebook in a format I can "share", so as to piss a multitude of people off.

I would add that if you weren't BORN with money, you'll never have money. Rags-to-riches happens occasionally, but rarely enough that it has to be considered a freak phenomenon and the result not so much of hard work and intelligence, but of incredible good luck. Consider this: If you just look at the numbers, your odds of starting working-class and EVER having a net worth over two million dollars are higher if you play the lottery than if you work hard and have a genius IQ. Yes, if you work hard and have a genius IQ, you may very well go to a good school, get a PhD, and a job that nets maybe $70-$140k/year. But in order to make much more than that, you have to work in business or finance, and have connections. Most such "connections" aren't just college connections (and if you're a poor kid, you probably won't get into a college where you'll make wealth-making connections, no matter how smart and skilled you are, because you don't already have connections, and if you do, you might make friends from rich families, but remember... you aren't "from a good family", so you aren't anyone the people who are care about "making connections" with), they're family connections. So you, poor kid, will not very likely make any great strides in making a fortune in the financial sector.
 
Where poor kids can really get ahead, and even become famous after a fashion, in the way that nerds contemplate fame, is in science research. In science, and in academia in general, you can be nobody and excel through hard work and brilliance. If you are a truly remarkable engineer or biochemist you might eventually top $200k/year. That's a LOT of money to a poor kid, but guess what... it doesn't put you in the ranks of the rich. Not even close. You will have enough, in a very real sense... and if the market is in an uptick, you may even invest enough to reap fat dividends from rich people screwing poor people, and leave a sizable inheritance to your kids. It might... MIGHT... even be enough to launch them from upper-middle-class to rich, if they know people and invest it well... but that's incredibly unlikely. They might put it into a retirement fund, and hopefully they followed your lead and have good degrees, and you will have elevated generations of your descendants into the middle class. But that's it.
 
The sad thing is, there's more than enough wealth for every single one of us to live a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, and enough left over for some people to be rich. Just not SUPER-rich. But who actually needs to be super-rich? What's the benefit?

I thing one of the main advantages of being born rich is that, from day one, you are conditioned with that sense of "entitlement" which is really just a nice way of saying "no qualms about exploiting the poor". It's almost a kind of selective sociopathy. To see most of society as servants or somehow less than human.

In the case of a poor or working class person this would be a pathology.

Yes, exactly. It's only antisocial if you act against members of your OWN society... and people in different class divisions exist in different societies.

It's not a two way street when it comes to class divisons tho. The rich are conditioned to exploit the poor but the poor are conditioned to serve the rich.

Stealing from the rich is no different, ethically speaking, from being rich. Contrary to popular programming belief, stealing from rich people or large corporations is actually a victimless crime. The two wrongs cancel each other out. No one I tell this to believes me, tho, I'm arguing against years of conditioning. It's not even an argument that I have a vested interest in winning. The more skint fucks who understand this, the harder it is to acquire my fair share of the earth's bananas.