So wrote Dave Ramsey, a nationally known personal finance expert in the JS on 2/21/10. Most poor people delay few pleasures and then expect those who responsibly stayed out of debt until they could do as Alexander Hamilton wrote, "The creation of debt should be accompanied with the means of extinguishment".
But then how would illiterate and just plain stupid people (or those who know better than anyone else wiser than they were)know this? Learned from their fathers? Maybe, if they know who they are and certainly not much from the woman who like in the old song sang, 'I'm just a gal who can't say no'. "Oklahoma" I believe.
Back on 6/2/05, I wrote a blog titled "Keeping Up" or keeping up with the Joneses. Many use debt trying to keep up with the wealthy using debt like "swords to cut through the jungles of greed". People who should have continued renting, were told by shrewd politicians and business shysters that home ownership 'was major only goal in life'.
"Renewed efforts to keep people in their homes by jiggling the terms of mortgages simply keeps them locked in with little chance of SAVING for other purposes. Government intervention in the mortgage market affects investment in our children's education and our retirement plans, creating shortfalls that will undoubtedly be met by demands for more intervention in these markets."
"Home ownership has been branded at the ultimate fulfillment of the American dream: upward mobility for us and poor children". (Written by Eugene M. White, a professor of economics at Rutgers University)
These are the people most likely to play the lotteries severely compounding their financial duress and urged on by free spending of OPM and being lied to by political and business shysters.
I'd say most poor people learned well from their parents and politicians and other shysters.
Me, I came from poverty, have no debt and paid cash for the house I live in. And I agree with many of my detractors, I'm not that smart. Maybe just more common sense than lottery players. Inherited from my frugal poor folks (nine kids) who didn't rely on the lottery or welfare but did hard work and punched no clocks, formed no picket line, didn't make fools of themselves like some teachers and union thugs did recently and didn't let the "door hit them in the ass" when it was 5 o'clock.
And no, I have never bought a lottery ticket nor gambled more than I could afford. And no, again, I wasn't caught in Jimmie's Lock Shop gambling bust, I had never been inside the building. (Inside joke known by a few of the old-timers still alive.)
Not bragging because at times I proved I wasn't very smart. I owe a lot of thanks to so many others.
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