Col

Did you take a look at your posts before writing the last one? You have been extremely nasty under no provocation at all. You would be aware from being a regular contributor that numbat likes to stir. For my part I have not said the things I would like such as you lack compassion, are intolerant of other POV's, are unable to empathise, having been self employed you do not know what it is like to be bullied by the boss nor been the recipient of unwanted sexual advances. There are a variety of reasons why people end up on welfare - calling them losers and demeaning them is the act of a bully, Col. No-one on this forum as treated you as a "plaything" you are as far from playful as Komodo Dragon - and about as caring.

There I have fired off an insult or two - based entirely from the invective you have fired at me.

Poverty is not being able to place food on the table, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, the lack of a job where you are able to make a contribution and the lack of esteem that results. Anything else is philosophical chatter, until basic needs are met you can rant all you like that wealth is a state of mind - well it is a state of mind I can't afford right now. At least my situation has brought out your true colours Col. You posted 'em - you are revealed as the narrow minded, intolerant person I always expected you were.

Col: I have never bullied you or tried to control you, I have stated my beliefs. Yes they are different from your beliefs so in your eyes they are wrong. Quote from your last posting,the words of a fair minded humble teachable person : "there is dignity in standing alone when right" I reckon that says it all Col. numbat.

numbat "Col Rouge: What arrant nonsense you spouted in your donation to this discussion.
Many in your position repeat " Help the poor and they will be poor again" This tawdry, unproved phrase is a sop used to cover up your selfishness."

Those are the first words you wrote to me – and those were regarding me agreeing with what someone else wrote.

You tried with that outburst of self-righteous pomposity to bully and intimidate.

I will not accept people like you trying to influence or coerce what I write by attempts to denounce my view with the crass and stupidly pointless drivel as you wrote there.

So give up the whining, grow up and make a fresh start - with an apology.

Trinity – poverty exists as much as a “state of mind” as it is a “material issue”. That is what David BOAZ, TUS, myself and several other posters have been saying.

Poverty of spirit or Poverty of attitude will never be resolved by pumping money at them.
But in Australia today “material poverty” is completely avoidable with forethought, planning and discipline.
My personal belief is finding strength or richness of “spirit” and “attitude” is why we were born in the first place – it is why we are on this journey.
The "material" bit is just part of “the how”, the "spirit" and "attitude" part is the “why”.

As for what you think of me – I am sufficiently “rich” in self-esteem and self belief as to not need your acceptance nor bother with your approval.

Col lives in aberration of good times most people in this world can’t imagine today. Trinity has a grass roots approach to life that is more familiar to many here too. Trinity; my folks survived a depression, some survived a couple of wars and they took the stuffing out of many. Like refugees they sometimes shook and couldn’t speak.

After ww2 we had a lot of catching up to do and we did. But in my own industrial automation routines I saw how we made whole sections redundant and the pace of it all grew and grew. I was one of the lucky ones and could move from factory to factory week to week to do more measurements. As the old complex where I started in a small port city is all closed down now I often wonder how the population copes without those five hundred or a thousand unskilled jobs for mainly female workers depending on the era.

The rhetoric includes deskilling and multi-skilling, competition and market forces. It leads to globalization and lack of control at our end of the market. I used to door knock small businesses set up on someone’s retrenchment or retirement funds. Generally their lifetime’s savings lasted a year or twenty months. More than fifty percent of my old clients were in the hands of receivers every year. Hardest hit were family dairy farms with two kids at high school. Mum and dad’s work never stopped.

Col, Let's begin again. Why don't you answer any of the questions I ask.

Just one eh? Try this one. Where does the sate of mind that allows some people to be happy while poor, come from? How do you get that attitude and how would you know since apparently you are not poor. I do gather that you are quite well-off and au fait with the stock market and all that fancy economic stuff.

Also, why do some people fail to grasp the simple answer that success in life depends on how you play your hand, (ie on one's attitude). It doesn't depend on the hand one is dealt or how shifty the other players may be.

I keep asking you questions but you never answer.

You know almost every thinker back in the 40's (when Maslow wrote his ideas about self-actualisation) was 'a socialist' because the results of free-market capitalism had been so disastrous.

Free market capitalism relies on the idea that human's will behave rationally and reasonably and they do not. Clearly, look at all the foolish people who do not see how intelligent and self-actualised you are.

But, you have ceased to be much fun because it is like shooting fish in a barrell. Too easy and the results are too predictable.

But try answering a question or two (of the many that I have asked) and lets see where you are coming from.

Mollydukes – the ”state of mind” which allows people to be happy yet “poor” is the similar to what allows some people to be given everything yet still be “empty” or “insecure”.

Examples –
small tribes in say PNG or the Amazon Basin who know nothing else.
Priests who find their happiness in spiritual wealth.
Some of us who find “happiness” through personal development, reaching out to push out the limits of our being or find enrichment (humbling) through knowing how much we are loved by others.
Some of us who believe strength and fulfilment is held back and denied by the enforced “co-dependency” imposed through socialist dogma and doctrine.

“Free market capitalism relies on the idea that human's will behave rationally and reasonably” – total bunkum and garbage

People are 99% motivated by emotion, 1% motivated by reason – that given a free choice between spending $10 a week on a tattslotto ticket and $10 a week extra paid off of their house mortgage, 99 will choose the tattslotto option and only 1 choose the “long term benefit” derived from paying down the mortgage – that is a free market choice – and completely irrational.

As for “Clearly, look at all the foolish people who do not see how intelligent and self-actualised you are.”

You just cannot avoid flaming. I will resist sinking to your (psychological) level.

Maslow observed

“Self Actualisers - they resisted enculturation, that is, they were not susceptible to social pressure to be "well adjusted" or to "fit in"
They were, in fact, NONCONFORMISTS IN THE BEST SENSE”

I might fulfill Maslows definition by not complying to your (and the other foolish peoples) ideas of “conformity”.

In other words your opinion of me has no influence. That my attitude confounds your personal need to “control all about you” is just tough get used to being denied, it is all part of the process of developing “self-actualisation”.

As for “shooting fish in a barrel” I doubt you have the stature to see over the lip of the barrel let shoot down into it.