• Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Breaks my heart.

billwald

New Member
from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-...rawal-means-trading-aspen-for-cheap-chex.html

oly Prep
The malaise is shared by Schiff, the New York-based marketing director for Euro Pacific Capital, where his brother is CEO. His family rents the lower duplex of a brownstone in Cobble Hill, where his two children share a room. His 10-year- old daughter is a student at $32,000-a-year Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn. His son, 7, will apply in a few years.
“I can’t imagine what I’m going to do,” Schiff said. “I’m crammed into 1,200 square feet. I don’t have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand.”
He wants 1,800 square feet -- “a room for each kid, three bedrooms, maybe four,” he said. “Imagine four bedrooms. You have the luxury of a guest room, how crazy is that?”
The family rents a three-bedroom summer house in Connecticut and will go there again this year for one month instead of four. Schiff said he brings home less than $200,000 after taxes, health-insurance and 401(k) contributions. The closing costs, renovation and down payment on one of the $1.5 million 17-foot-wide row houses nearby, what he called “the low rung on the brownstone ladder,” would consume “every dime” of the family’s savings, he said.
“I wouldn’t want to whine,” Schiff said. “All I want is the stuff that I always thought, growing up, that successful parents had.”

“If you’re making $50,000 and your salary gets down to $40,000 and you have to cut, it’s very severe to you,” Dlugash said. “But it’s no less severe to these other people with these big numbers.”
 

abcgrad94

Active Member
Poor baby. Let's see. . .I do all my dishes by hand, live in a one-bathroom house, don't have cable TV, haven't had a "vacation" in several years, and here's the bad one. . .I'm driving a 12 year old car. Boo hoo!

The "woe is me" mentality of the rich is just amazing, isn't it?
 

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
Then that should be incentive to work harder to improve your life style.

And when he does:

the moving company and employees will make money

The real-estate agent will make money

A new house needs certain basic items - so more sales at Lowes

and....

then all those folks who made more money will spend it, giving other people to make more money....

I am never jealous about how well someone else does. I like to see folks use their abilities to improve themselves. I am glad when someone else succeeds!

Let me give you the perfect example. the other day, a man came in to buy a truck. He was one of these who knows everything about trucks. At the moment, my truck knowledge is low. I am concerned that if I continue with this customer, he will go to another dealer. I told my boss to have another salesman handle this account. I would rather one of my co-workers (and my dealership) to make the deal - than for me to loose the mans business.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

billwald

New Member
Retail car sales is a good example of "Sucker born every minute." Some of us expect to lose a couple of hundred bucks on a car deal. That's a long way from losing your house to a banker who KNEW you couldn't afford it.
 

Gina B

Active Member
I can understand that to a point. Some people were raised with money and that's what they know. They have no concept of what most of us on this board would consider normal.

Also consider it from a non-Christian perspective coming from someone raised with money. How does that type of person think of success? Money. It's what gives them a sense of accomplishment, self-worth, pride, and what life is about.

It's a bad combination from a heart standpoint. Take away the money and what is left? Their social standing is based on what they have.

So away the lifestyle they know and what do they have?

Nothing.

I get that.

For those of us who ever lived as atheists, we all had something that was more important than God, and it was what we lived for. If it wasn't money, it was our rep, or what did good for other people. Maybe it was drugs, maybe it was alcohol, maybe it a certain group of friends. Maybe it was family.

Our greatest fear was losing whatever it was we depended on to satisfy our souls.

So while it might be kind of funny at first glance, it's really just kinda sad. They really feel that way. When you live a life where washing dishes by hand is one of your greatest sources of feeling worthless, what kind of life is that?

It's definitely not one I envy. Never really have, although I did find that getting a dishwasher was kinda neat, even though I still enjoy hand-washing them. LOL

Oddly enough, he has all that money and no dishwasher. I have a much lower income and probably make less a year than he spends on sending his kids to private school, but that doesn't mean you can't have a dishwasher. I don't get why he can afford a vacation home and not a dishwasher, unless he thinks they have to be made of solid gold or something. Weird.
 

menageriekeeper

Active Member
yeah, I'm thinking if he wanted a dishwasher or a bigger house he could quit paying $32,000 a year for his kid to go to private school. :/ ya know? And honestly, washing dishes period is a fact of life. If that makes them feel like less of a person, then they are in sad serious psycological shape. :rolleyes:

Stuff like this is what a budget is for. Stuff like this is what common sense is for. Sadly our sense of entitlement in this country blinds us to "real life".

So says the one who homeschools (cheaper and I have control) and JUST BOUGHT A DISHWASHER! :D
 

TC

Active Member
Site Supporter
oly Prep
His family rents the lower duplex of a brownstone in Cobble Hill, where his two children share a room. His 10-year- old daughter is a student at $32,000-a-year Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn. His son, 7, will apply in a few years.
“I can’t imagine what I’m going to do,” Schiff said. “I’m crammed into 1,200 square feet. I don’t have a dishwasher. We do all our dishes by hand.

He has two dishwashers (my dad always said that kids were dishwashers). :laugh:
 

Oldtimer

New Member
This article brought back to mind something I was thinking about the other day.

People in today's society who don't realize what it really means to count our blessings. The thought that day centered around a thermostat on the wall for heating and air conditioning.

I'm truly blessed to be able to push a couple of buttons to change the comfort level in our home. You see, as an oldtimer, I spent my childhood in a farm house without the benefit of "modern conveniences". Water was drawn a bucket at a time from the well. Bathroom was out back. Heat was provided by sweat equity needed to fire up a wood heater. Air conditioning, in summer, meant opening windows and doors, while hoping for a breeze.

It's a blessing to flip a switch to turn on a light. You see, I remember when REA brought electric power lines to our farm and those around us. We ate supper by lamp light after Mama cooked it on a wood cookstove.

It's a blessing to open the refrigerator and pull out a cold pitcher of tea. You see, we had an ice box. Had to go to town and buy a 25 lb block of ice to get a glass of iced tea in summer.

The list of blessings can go on for a while. Store bought ice cream. Microwave ovens. High speed Internet access. Turning a key to start a car. etc. & etc.

And these folks feel deprived - ie not blessed - because they don't have a dishwasher?

That wasn't said to be sarcastic. It's sad that so many people today don't realize how truly blessed we are with material things - comforts - in our lives today. Thus, many don't appreciate non material blessings that range from watching a beautiful sunrise when God's creation is on display in full glory, to:

His promise held in a rainbow

the quiet whisper of the Holy Spirt during times of prayer and reflection

And, Oh, so much more...........................
 

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
Oldtimer -
Interesting post - but I would like to take it a bit further.

In this country we have truly poor people. They may complain they don't have a car (so they must take a bus), they don't a second coat (have to wait till spring to clean it), they don't have the new type TV (so they can only bring in the one local low power TV station)

So what is the difference between the family above and the one in the OP?

You say that the OP family has so much already.

But compared to families in third world nations - the family in my example have so much already.....

We all seek to have something better - and in itself there is nothing wrong in it. The problem is how we go about it.

In my new job - there are things I want to get - but all in due time.

Salty

ps - anybody want to buy a Ford? ! :smilewinkgrin:
 

menageriekeeper

Active Member
I agree Salty that this country has a skewed sense of what it means to be poor. But also, there is a difference between poor and destitute!

The man in the OP isn't going to be homeless or hungry because he can't afford a dishwasher. Eventually he'll figure out what his priorities are and he'll find cheaper housing or cheaper school environments. We likely don't have to worry about him going hungry.

The person in your example, if they can't afford a second coat, are we sure they can afford food? Can they ever hope to aspire to cable tv? That person is likely living on the edge with no room to manuveur. TV and a second coat might be luxuries, but it might just be indicative of a person living right on the edge of poverty.

And there is a huge quality of life gap between the two examples.
 

HankD

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Somewhat related:

A couple of years ago I was watching the news and a lady was shown weeping and wailing (yes wailing). "I'll starve, I'll starve... ".

New and recent rules and regulations had been inacted and she had had her food stamp allowance reduced.

However, she looked morbidly obese with an abundance of body fat.

As the old cliche goes "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry" where a situation of going from deprived to destutute in America meant a possible improvement in one's health.

HankD
 

billwald

New Member
I suspect that 100 years ago when farmers started to put flush toilets in their farms that some other farmers called them uppity and said they were wasting money that could go to missions.
 

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
I suspect that 100 years ago when farmers started to put flush toilets in their farms that some other farmers called them uppity and said they were wasting money that could go to missions.

I'm just going to flush that thinking down the drain....:laugh:
 

bacustic

New Member
I would like to take a moment to recognize that every poster in this thread is in agreement with billwald. Never thought I would see the day!
 

HankD

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I would like to take a moment to recognize that every poster in this thread is in agreement with billwald. Never thought I would see the day!

In the infamous words of the infamous unnamed comedienne:

"It's possible!".

HankD
 
Top