<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Oct 31, 2005, at 10:15 PM, Jeff Davis wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">He's absolutely right you know. <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"Absolutely'?<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Strong wording that.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>True believer</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">stuff.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Tread carefully.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">While the world is awash in opportunity, there are</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">problems.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>I'll list three. <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Our culture does NOT make a focused effort to train</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">people to be economically savvy, to recognize the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">abundance of opportunity and to make it work for them.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>In the old days a son or daughter would be at their</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">father or mother's side and learn the necessary life</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">skills.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Our culture has no plan -- our education</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">system is an unfocused corrupted pile of crap -- for</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">preparing people to be economically competent.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>When</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">people succeed, they do so IN SPITE OF the culture's</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">failure to do its duty and prepare them.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Almost</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">without exception the preparation for success comes</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">from the family, from the individual realizing what</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">he/she needs to do, or from blind luck.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>And the</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">family influence is so crucial a factor, that economic</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">incompetence (from which comes poverty) is virtually</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">an inherited familial legacy. <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I wonder whether people see this, because to me it</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">seems that successful people who know "how to get</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">there from here" do it naturally, like breathing,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">without thinking and without realizing that it's</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">something you need to know how to do.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>And</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">unsuccessful people, the chronically indigent, are</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">paralyzed by the absolute certainty that there IS NO</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">WAY OUT,<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Few people, even ones making it just fine, really develop any financial sense at all much less develop and entrepreneurial mindset. I sure agree with you there. But how do we fix it from here? </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Telling ourselves that people can just pick a living off the Net assumes way toq much about what resources and skills most people have. It is easy to think about what we here who are self selected for more than average intelligence and imagination would/could do and think that of course the same thing is true of everyone else. Unfortunately that is not remotely the case.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>There are scenarios where there is NO WAY OUT without rewriting some rules or removing some obstacles.</DIV><DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>If the government requires you to get a license you can't afford to sell what you can do to those willing to pay then you are in fact a bit trapped. If you are young and just starting out with no real skills and the government forbids anyone to hire you for what your utterly untrained and never tested in a job labor is thought to be worth then you are a bit trapped. If you are homeless and you are required to have a fixed address to even get on many types of relief, much less to hold a job, then you are a bit trapped if you are homeless. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>If technology has moved along and your skills are obsolete and/or available much cheaper than you can stay afloat on and re-training is not available, not affordable or you just can't seem to hack the new stuff you could be a bit blocked.</DIV><DIV></DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD">- samantha</FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>