Originally Posted By: TickaTicka
Originally Posted By: chad1980
I know this....My father started out with a company 35 years ago making minimum wage....Worked his way all the way up through the ranks and now falls into one of these high paying wages...He pays way more than his fair share of taxes every year, I have seen the checks written to the IRS they are more than most of us make in a year. Never gets a break, has to carry a satellite phone, gone all the time. He literally never gets a day away, even when we are hunting he is still having to run things, or he gets fired. There are no write-ups, warnings, suspensions, he is looking for another job period. Most of us have the luxury of leaving a job at the end of our shift and going home and forgetting about it. I dont think it is fair to say that "no one deserves 500 thousand dollar a year salary" until you have had to walk in those shoes.


I'm a bit of a romantic, but I tell my kids all the time that the American dream is still alive and they can go get it. Your dad is a living example.

I'm fascinated by this relatively new concept of hating wealthy people. Since 98% of wealth in America is "new" wealth, meaning not inherited, doesn't this just mean people are piling on the American dream. How does one think this is a good idea? I get it, there are always bad apples in every group but to universally hate the 1% is beyond me. I look up to them. What great achievers. I don't want to stifle their great motors of work ethic, innovation, etc. with hate. I'm not saying we need to praise them either, but the vitriol is strange to me.


Nailed it. I never realized that Aldeer had so many socialist haters.

I had dinner with a man two weeks ago. He got a scholarship and went to UNA. Then put himself through pharmacy school at Sanford by doing landscape contracting. He met my dad, at taekwondo classes, and enlisted him to learn how to build houses. When he graduated pharmacy school, he got contracts at different pharmacies in Alabama and Tennessee. He'd often work a shift in Nashville, then work another a few hours later in Huntsville. He and his wife built 9 homes in the next 10 years, averaging about 20% on each home, including moving expenses. That's 9 moves, just to pick up some income. He quit building and started his own pharmacy. After several years of that, he sold out to cvs for 17x earnings. He then started a "doc in the box" type clinic. Now he's up to a half dozen of those, and making an exceptional income. He's in his early fifties.

People like him are the American Dream. But, a lot of people are jealous pricks, without ever understanding the cost of what it takes to become that successful. He told me quite simply, "anyone can make a whole lot of money. It takes two things: 1. Working more 100hr weeks than 50hr weeks. 2. Having average intelligence." That's a lot of sacrifice. Not everyone is willing to devote their lives to being successful, but to resent successful people because they have, is the epitome of sorry.