I don't want to live on this planet anymore

[Calcium Deposit]

Associating yourself with a party means you're eventually going to be taking up causes and expressing opinions that aren't yours or don't represent your interests.

[PaperclipGames]

@Phynx: I havent been completely up-to-date of this thread but from what I am reading, I semi-agree with your post, aside from this:

Originally Posted by Phynx

If you're a hard worker, you'll find a good job regardless of your education. There are always better jobs out there for everyone.

It sounds overly optimistic. It is apparently extremely difficult by now to even find a good job in the first place, let alone if you are a foreigner (sad but true).

[korny]

Originally Posted by Phynx

I based my response on the fact that, according to kitty, they ARE abusing their personal financial situation. According to kitty, they're are not only giving 10%, which is fine, but as well even more large sums to the church. They are over-extending their obligation to the church so much so, it appears, that they are forcing themselves and their family into poverty or close to. THIS is why I say they are abusing their financial situation. Give to your religious cause, but don't give so much that your own family struggles to survive.

My parents did and still do the exact same thing. When I was younger my family was very very poor. We lived in the ghetto. Now my dad makes guapola. I'm not necessarily attributing him now being very well off to having "received god's blessing" through him paying tithe and other donations, but there are people who like kitty's parents, believe that they too will receive similar blessings through their religious diligence, and i'm almost positive that is why they continue to go about it the way they do. If kitty is literally starving every day and suffering from her situation then that would be different, but from what I can tell all the basic needs of survival are being met here and she will be fine until she is able to go on her own to do things her way.

[A2P]

my town ^_^

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by Phynx

First off, living in America really is easy. There's not one part of this country that is hard to live in. If you want a good life, there's really only one solid, tried-and-true, proven, set-in-stone way of attaining a good life in America. WORK[size=4][size=2]. All a man or woman has to do to survive and even provide themselves and their families a GOOD life is to work.

[...]

What people SHOULD have done is studied their mortgage options more before signing on a house. A large portion of homeowners survived the housing crash simply due to two facts. 1. They worked. 2. They got a locked-in mortgage rate that can NEVER change under law. These people never seen their mortgage payments fluctuate at all. So for those that had a set mortgage rate but still lost their house, well, my personal guess is that they weren't working or had recently bought the house for more money than they could afford.

I'm 21, own my own house, own my own vehicles, provide for myself completely and cover all of my expenses under my own power and at the end of the day, I still have money left over for fun.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS IS HOW EASY IT IS TO LIVE IN AMERICA! It's not hard. No matter where you live. As long as you have a steady job, and it doesn't even have to pay you that much, as long as you don't jump into something you can't afford and don't over-extend your expenses each month, living in America truly is easy as hell. The government with all their spending still hasn't made America a hard place to live. So correct me if I'm wrong about something here.

(oh and for anyone who might think "well you make a lot of money so you can afford these things" no, I really don't. I make on average only $2,300 a month before taxes. Just that little amount allows me to live rather lavishly so stop complaining.)

I will say, though, that this is an unimpeachably sheltered view.

It's not all about "work." That's only part of the equation. A lot of your ability to succeed depends entirely on conditions that you have no control over: Where you were born, your genetics, your family type, your access to education, your opportunities, your wealth, your access to resources, your social upbringing, and managing to make it long enough without experiencing any severe financial setbacks, etc. It's really hard to get ahead if you start out with a shittier hand. Advantages beget advantages, whereas obstacles typically beget obstacles and delay your ability to catch up.

The problem behind the crisis was also not adjustable-rate mortgages, strictly speaking. It was a combination of things -- ARM's just made a bad situation worse for many people. What really set the shit through the fan was the subprime lending coupled with the decline in house prices.

[qqwref]

Gotta agree with Rubix here, Phynx's situation is not at all the same as everyone else's, and what works for him is not necessarily going to work for others. There are plenty of people out there who are willing to work hard but can't get a livable job for various reasons (transportation, disability, taking care of someone, language issues, education, race/gender, age, bad luck, etc), and there are plenty of people who live in areas with a far higher cost-of-living than Phynx's area appears to have. Clearly he's doing well, and good for him, but it's just not so simple for everyone.

Originally Posted by korny

the whole purpose of [tithing] is to show god that you're willing to give 10% of everything you have to him

Hang on, doesn't God know everything? He'd know you were willing to give 10% of your income to him without you actually having to do it (cf. the Binding of Isaac). To be honest it sounds like that church has just found a really clever way of extorting money out of its followers.

[Reincarnate]

Yeah, donating 10% to a church = massive waste of money. Man, I hate religion lmfao.

[korny]

Originally Posted by qqwref

Hang on, doesn't God know everything? He'd know you were willing to give 10% of your income to him without you actually having to do it (cf. the Binding of Isaac). To be honest it sounds like that church has just found a really clever way of extorting money out of its followers.

I'm not about to get into the freewill discussion here. The sentiment behind paying tithe from that perspective, would be that what is 10% of your earnings, to the life given to you allowing you to make any earnings in the first place?

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by korny

I'm not about to get into the freewill discussion here. The sentiment behind paying tithe from that perspective, would be that what is 10% of your earnings, to the life given to you allowing you to make any earnings in the first place?

Considering that life isn't granted to you by God, the answer is U(.1*E(lifetime))

true story

[korny]

And that would certainly be a discussion for a different time and place.

[~kitty~]

What my parents believe is that if you give, you will receive. This religion that they're a part of is all like neo-confucius buddhist christian stuff or whatever. So pretty much they use the term of filial piety and I have to obey my parents or I face consequences. Somehow, they think that magically donating 10% would mean that you've set a condition for good things to happen to you, and that your ancestors and god will prevent things from happening to you or bless you with good things. If we don't see anything good happening in our "physical life," we will see it in our "spiritual life." So pretty much there's nothing that's going to stop them, and there's no convincing them otherwise because they're saying they know he exists and all of these things exist because they can "feel" it. I don't even know how to properly explain this idea, but it really is making my life crap, and I haven't gotten anything good out of this.

[robertsona]

phynx spent $2000 of his parents' money on giving people ffr tokens i think he had a good head start financially

[UserNameGoesHere]

Originally Posted by Phynx

First off, living in America really is easy. There's not one part of this country that is hard to live in.

I couldn't disagree more. Have you lived literally everywhere in the country?

Originally Posted by Phynx

If you want a good life, there's really only one solid, tried-and-true, proven, set-in-stone way of attaining a good life in America. WORK[size=4].

This of course assumes gaining work is reasonably attainable; an assumption which does not always hold.

Originally Posted by Phynx

All a man or woman has to do to survive and even provide themselves and their families a GOOD life is to work.

This assumes all work pays livable wages; another assumption which does not always hold.

Originally Posted by Phynx

THIS IS HOW EASY IT IS TO LIVE IN AMERICA! It's not hard. No matter where you live. As long as you have a steady job, and it doesn't even have to pay you that much, as long as you don't jump into something you can't afford and don't over-extend your expenses each month, living in America truly is easy as hell.

See above.

Originally Posted by Phynx

So correct me if I'm wrong about something here.

You most certainly are. Corrections are above.

Originally Posted by Phynx

(oh and for anyone who might think "well you make a lot of money so you can afford these things" no, I really don't. I make on average only $2,300 a month before taxes. Just that little amount allows me to live rather lavishly so stop complaining.)

Which is still more than everyone makes. And which is still a lot of money to some people.

I'm glad your personal situation is working out for you but don't assume the same is true for everybody everywhere in such a large nation. I mean no personal offense to you in my corrections but feel the need to point this out. Also, everything is relative.

[ELRayford]

Disregard religion, acquire currency? I totally agree. Waste of time. Just be a good person, ditch religion and save cash. (and sanity?)

As for not being able to find a "good" job because you are a foreigner. Well that is another per case statement. My spouse is from Bulgaria and she makes more than ole sphinxnter.(at a job requiring NO DEGREE lol) Also sup bro long time. Hope all is well!

My advice would have to be "Get a Job" Stop relying ONLY on an electronic resume submission and go make some face to face interactions. Call em up etc. Hopefully soon I can start hiring some people xD

[Reincarnate]

Originally Posted by ~kitty~

What my parents believe is that if you give, you will receive. This religion that they're a part of is all like neo-confucius buddhist christian stuff or whatever. So pretty much they use the term of filial piety and I have to obey my parents or I face consequences. Somehow, they think that magically donating 10% would mean that you've set a condition for good things to happen to you, and that your ancestors and god will prevent things from happening to you or bless you with good things. If we don't see anything good happening in our "physical life," we will see it in our "spiritual life." So pretty much there's nothing that's going to stop them, and there's no convincing them otherwise because they're saying they know he exists and all of these things exist because they can "feel" it. I don't even know how to properly explain this idea, but it really is making my life crap, and I haven't gotten anything good out of this.

god bless unfalsifiability

[ledwix]

Bad, but much worse stuff has happened in the world. Trillion dollar wars, for instance, and then there are all the forms of torture that have been invented by humans. OP, this shouldn't be the one thing that puts you over the top.

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by ELRayford

My spouse is from Bulgaria and she makes more than ole sphinxnter.(at a job requiring NO DEGREE lol)

Not gonna lie, first thing that comes to mind is prostitute

[PaperclipGames]

Having a religion is fine and all even if you put 10% of your earnings into it. I feel a bit ashamed that people are like "lol ditch religion, save money" just like that. Respect other people's beliefs, man. I'm not religious myself but I do at least respect the fact that many people are.

Originally Posted by hi19hi19

Not gonna lie, first thing that comes to mind is prostitute

Lulz.

[ELRayford]

Originally Posted by hi19hi19

Not gonna lie, first thing that comes to mind is prostitute

Hahahahahaha. Hi19 1 Rayford 0

Pimpin aint easy bro. On a real note, she does "billing support" for a phone company.

[Reincarnate]

How well can she take an accounts-receivable? I've got a rather large wad I need to deliver.