{sorry I digress I'm just dealing with my democratically controlled state legislature in CT proposing to tax me even more because my household income is above a certain amount even though the 1% of people in CT who are at/above my income level already account for over 75% of total tax revenue that the state collects every year already ]) 
DrJeff said:
you. mvs04 said:
There are plenty of folks who work their butt to the bone just to make ends meet. I don't know about you, but most dentists I know work 4 days. So you were fortunate enough to have been:
1) born not dumb and without severe physical handicaps
2) born in the US or born into an immigrant circumstances that allowed you to come and study in the US, instead of say... a cholera strickened goat-turd farmer in Ethiopia, or as some peasant in the Indian countryside who got packed off to the slums of a city just to eke out a few rupees a day working in slave hours....
3) probably male, so never had to experience something like being raped and infected with an STD/pregnancy that completely derailed your educational/life plans...
etc etc (just raising examples)
so on and so forth... but all of a sudden everyone who didn't become a dentist or make as much money didn't "worked as hard as you" ??? give me a break!
Income has no correlation on how "hard" you work, or have worked. If you want to use your logic then everyone who makes more than you is working harder.... and that is crap. By the virtue of this logic because I started a mutual fund and sold it for a ****load of money in college, I have worked so much harder than you! Wrong! I guarantee you I didn't work as diligently as the vast majority of people I know. I dunno about you, but while I was in college, my days were spent sailing, playing polo for UCLA, and kiteboarding. Oh that and skipping lectures. No way in hell did I really work "hard" for my source of income. Grocery baggers and nudie booth jizz moppers worked harder than I did.
Granted there are lots of people who are simply too lazy to improve their lot in life, but there are many who are trying all that they can to live their life to the best of their abilities and so their kids can be better off... if a bit of forced income redistribution means some more adequte social services for those marginalized people... so be it? I'm not saying our current progressive tax system is perfect, but at least it's better than some kind of society resembling Fritz Lang's segmented Metropolis.... If you want to wall yourself off in some kind of gated community and etc, by all means, but honestly, what's an extra 30, 40k in taxes?
btw- isn't "compassion" and "willing to help others" a part of being a doctor? Does the value of a patient diminish if he takes less than good care of his oral health? Do you turn away patients based on whether they meet some arbitrary "hard-work" barometer ?
When I decided to go to dental school, my grandfather wrote me a letter. In it he talked of a doctor (back in the 30s) he knew who permanently relocated to rural China with a missionary group, he would spend his days traveling throughout the countryside, his bag of tools and son in tow, and treat peasants for nothing if just a cup of tea and an invitation to share a meal. This doctor "never tried to preach, but rather through his actions became a living sermon: God is love." That is the doctor model I'm striving for, if not in the severity of actions but at least in spirit. When did being a doctor entail dollar-pinching some chump 6 figured salary in pursuit of eventually having pseudo-wealth?
Feeling a little too sleepy yet to draft a real response to this, so I'll just quote myself from another thread:mvs04 said:
There are plenty of folks who work their butt to the bone just to make ends meet. I don't know about you, but most dentists I know work 4 days. So you were fortunate enough to have been:
1) born not dumb and without severe physical handicaps
2) born in the US or born into an immigrant circumstances that allowed you to come and study in the US, instead of say... a cholera strickened goat-turd farmer in Ethiopia, or as some peasant in the Indian countryside who got packed off to the slums of a city just to eke out a few rupees a day working in slave hours....
3) probably male, so never had to experience something like being raped and infected with an STD/pregnancy that completely derailed your educational/life plans...
etc etc (just raising examples)
so on and so forth... but all of a sudden everyone who didn't become a dentist or make as much money didn't "worked as hard as you" ??? give me a break!
Income has no correlation on how "hard" you work, or have worked. If you want to use your logic then everyone who makes more than you is working harder.... and that is crap. By the virtue of this logic because I started a mutual fund and sold it for a ****load of money in college, I have worked so much harder than you! Wrong! I guarantee you I didn't work as diligently as the vast majority of people I know. I dunno about you, but while I was in college, my days were spent sailing, playing polo for UCLA, and kiteboarding. Oh that and skipping lectures. No way in hell did I really work "hard" for my source of income. Grocery baggers and nudie booth jizz moppers worked harder than I did.
Granted there are lots of people who are simply too lazy to improve their lot in life, but there are many who are trying all that they can to live their life to the best of their abilities and so their kids can be better off... if a bit of forced income redistribution means some more adequte social services for those marginalized people... so be it? I'm not saying our current progressive tax system is perfect, but at least it's better than some kind of society resembling Fritz Lang's segmented Metropolis.... If you want to wall yourself off in some kind of gated community and etc, by all means, but honestly, what's an extra 30, 40k in taxes?
btw- isn't "compassion" and "willing to help others" a part of being a doctor? Does the value of a patient diminish if he takes less than good care of his oral health? Do you turn away patients based on whether they meet some arbitrary "hard-work" barometer ?
When I decided to go to dental school, my grandfather wrote me a letter. In it he talked of a doctor (back in the 30s) he knew who permanently relocated to rural China with a missionary group, he would spend his days traveling throughout the countryside, his bag of tools and son in tow, and treat peasants for nothing if just a cup of tea and an invitation to share a meal. This doctor "never tried to preach, but rather through his actions became a living sermon: God is love." That is the doctor model I'm striving for, if not in the severity of actions but at least in spirit. When did being a doctor entail dollar-pinching some chump 6 figured salary in pursuit of eventually having pseudo-wealth?
aphistis said:
, but on the other hand, if a dentist walked into any business establishment, consumed products/merchandise and/or received service from the staff and at the end asked for a payment plan, we would be laughed at and you would here soemthing like, "Your a dentist, you have money, this isn't that kind of establishment were we accept I.O.U's" All in all, We are left with a bad taste in our mouth (unlike our prophy patients, no thats funny 
)
Dr.BadVibes said:
Dr.BadVibes said:
ItsGavinC said:
ChubbyBaby said:I'm not sure if you're joking or not.
If you aren't joking: I must say that as the child of extremely hard-working and devoted parents who make next to nothing, you are very incorrect. However, there's no point in arguing with you because it looks like you've made up your mind. Realizing that this "laziness" thing isn't true will only come with time, and personal experience.
ItsGavinC said:
J2AZ said:
ItsGavinC said:
You have an excellent point, Mexican immigrants are some of the hardest workers I've ever met. My economics-major buddy is all in favor of completely opening the borders but I haven't studied it enough to form my own opinion on this issue.HuyetKiem said:
mvs04 said:
There are plenty of folks who work their butt to the bone just to make ends meet. I don't know about you, but most dentists I know work 4 days. So you were fortunate enough to have been:
So at what point should a person start giving away their earnings? After the first $150K? $250K? I guess no one should be allowed to be a millionaire. No one's personal net worth should be over about $800K b/c they're loaded enough at that point and rest should go to poor slobs? Commrade, that's called socialism. If you like it, move to Sweden and STFU.Dr.BadVibes said:
Being poor is caused by a series of poor life decisions, the first of which was the decision to be lazy. Digging a ditch is hard work, fine, but the ditchdigger made a lazy decision not to care about school and education. I framed houses for a living in college. The guys I worked with never thought about the future or managing money, much less and education. They were lazy when it came down to important issues. It was their choice and it doesn't bother me as long as they don't demand a cut of my income through welfare.Dr.BadVibes said:
I'm not talking about poor people in other countries. Poor people in the US can be blamed for their situation. If they grew up in a ****ty home they should have thought about how they were going to rise above instead of giving up. If they really are mentally handicapped of course I don't hold their situation against them.Dr.BadVibes said:
My money is my money. If you want some of it, offer me a good or service I'm interested in, much as omfsres's mother does. If I decide to give my money to a charity, so be it. If the libs in congress try to take, they can go f--- themselves.Dr.BadVibes said:
Did you parents get married at a young age? Did they have more kids than they could afford? Did they have kids too early (before they were able to afford them or at a time that kids would prevent one or both from going to school)? Did they have cable TV? Did they devote themselves to their education while in grade school and high school so that they could enter college or were they content to get through school without really thinking about the future?ChubbyBaby said:I'm not sure if you're joking or not.
If you aren't joking: I must say that as the child of extremely hard-working and devoted parents who make next to nothing, you are very incorrect. However, there's no point in arguing with you because it looks like you've made up your mind. Realizing that this "laziness" thing isn't true will only come with time, and personal experience.
USUaggie said:
(You may have suggested this in your following sentence, but I couldn't understand.) It's hard to have motivation if you know that the work you put into something won't achieve as much ends as someone who puts in minimal effort with tons of resources/means. I know what you might be thinking: "well, screw that, just rise above it." The thing is that it's soo easy to say that with all your knowledge and values. Transplant anybody on SDN's brain into a kid in a terribly poor family, and I'm sure you'd be successful. But grow up as that kid, and it's different. tx oms said:
But if you're new on the block to this whole education thing, couldn't you see that it might be very tough to have an appreciation for this very esoteric activity? That kid might get accepted, but as a group, it's just another one of those little things that add up.
HuyetKiem said:
tx oms said:
I completely agree with you, but whether or not it is there fault, it's still laziness. This laziness is something they are taught because they see that they can still get by being lazy, so they are. I think we're saying the same theng.ChubbyBaby said:....The thing is that it's soo easy to say that with all your knowledge and values. Transplant anybody on SDN's brain into a kid in a terribly poor family, and I'm sure you'd be successful. But grow up as that kid, and it's different.
Yes, we brought home over 6 figures too, but at the end of the year when you look at how much the government kept, its a HUGE number. I'm all for paying my fair share of taxes, and yes they do have some very good programs that taxes support, but the abuses of these programs and realizing that it's MY money that's going into the pockets of some of these welfare abusers really, really SUCKS! I can't tell you how many patients on Title 19(what we call medicaid in CT) that are pleading poverty but driving around in brand new big SUV's an luxury sedans. I can't tell you how many folks on fixed incomes, living social security check to social security check pleading poverty that i've seen the day their checks come out each month at the gaming tables of the two local Indian Casinos by my house I can't tell you how many people on title 19 that will come in with brand new $150 Nikes, or talking about the game the night before they watched at home on their plasma TV, or the person whose infront of you in line at the grocery store buying Filet Mignon at $15/pound with food stamps. I could go on and on and on.
ItsGavinC said:
USUaggie said:
ChubbyBaby said:
tx oms said:
reLAXgirl said:You are right. People who carry negative characteristics such as laziness do not deserve to have worldy wealth. In fact, ones wealth directly correlates with work ethic. Look at Paris Hilton. . .she must be one of the hardworkingest girls in the country. After all, she is worth how many $$$$$, and yet she is so young.
"hardworkingest girls" Is that what they call it now in Iowa?!reLAXgirl said:... In fact, ones wealth directly correlates with work ethic. Look at Paris Hilton. . .she must be one of the hardworkingest girls in the country. After all, she is worth how many $$$$$, and yet she is so young.
