Crime pays better than hard work

a reply to: JAGStorm

I completely agree. Would it be a step in the right direction to view how their wealth was gained? That way, we don't start hating on the rich or hating just because of 1%. Once hate enters into the picture, noble intentions will be redirected once again into distracting us from any type of agreement to rein in the parasites and instead fight among ourselves.

Do you think the system that we have today is setup properly? Would you even attempt to define what is honest labor or honest profits? Or does that path of possible good intentions always lead to ruin?

originally posted by: ClovenSky
a reply to: rickymouse

heyzeus, are you trying to tell me there are honest salesmen out there? I wonder if the commission thing in itself causes a lot of dishonesty. Sell at all costs without any consideration to the buyer. For some reason commission in sales seems like a trap. But man Ricky, I salute your tatics. I wish there were more out there like you, especially in sales.

I almost suspect that you didn't get treated very well by coworkers and management with your benevolent acts. I was in telephony support at one time trying to help someone local with their phone system issues. The client was a little bit older so troubleshooting was almost impossible. I went out to their location after work and helped them through an internal wiring issue to get them back up. Well, they sent in a compliment and I got my butt chewed for the whole scenario from by boss. Certainly was a learning experience.

Actually, one of the salesmen tried rushing out sales at the end of the year so he could beat me in sales, he even took some of my sales during my time off between Christmas and New years. He ran through some of his January sales tickets from orders that had not arrived yet to boost the numbers for the year. I found out about the stealing of my sales because the manager told me he had done it. I told him it does not matter, but he gave the commission to me because he knew I had put time into it. There was No bonus for top sales and he went through all that work just so he could beat my sales. The other sales people were not even threatened, I actually helped their loyal customers and put their name on the receipts so they got credit. He was the only one that felt threatened and the other workers warned me he would sometimes take their sales.

The managers liked me, I was selling lots and their business was increasing. I mean selling a good less expensive vanity instead of a high priced inferior vanity was just a tradeoff. They kept coming back more and more to the store and I could not wait on all of them but helped them even if my coworkers paid on commission got the commission. I actually did not like the sales commission system, I just liked helping people find what they needed. I would have worked just as hard if I was just paid by the hour.

My mother sold Stanley, Amway, and Christmas around the world when I was growing up. She was pushy and I learned to not particularly like the sales tactics many use. She was an expert, I learned to ward off pushy people from one of the best in the area...my mother. She got free trips and seminars, she had many women under her buying and selling product.

I learned from her how to say no to pushy salesmen, I have never met a salesman as good at talking someone into buying things as she was. So I went the opposite way. My brother did too.

Apparently doing an honest day's work like some of us "older people" have done all our lives is cliche nowadays. Although I'm just under a month shy of 54, and don't feel quite "old" yet, my father instilled in me (by his example) the morals that I try to live by today. Not preachy, religious morals but real everyday morals of treating people with the same kind of respect and generosity that you want from others. Work an honest day's work. Don't steal or lie or cheat or treat anyone as anything less than equal to yourself. Although I've failed from time to time, I've tried to emulate the genuine caring for and generosity to others as my father has (and still does at almost 80 years old). Although being honest and not stealing may not reap the financial benefits of serving ones self only, I can honestly say that - even though I would be considered "lower-middle class income" - I am far richer (and happier) than anyone I know in what truly matters.

It really saddens me to see almost everyone demanding everyone else to change (while remaining selfish themselves) instead of setting the example. Change only happens if you start with yourself.

If I could steal (from the rich) for my own self gain and to survive I would.
If I could control drugs and sell them safely without anyone being harmed I would.
However 2019 isn't a good time for crime. Anything can go wrong. Fingerprints or hairs left behind can be traced back to me.
Robbery has a sentence of up to 10 years and prison just isn't worth it.

Taking advantage of people is a terrible thing but sadly it's what make us human.
every creature picks up how to exploit weakness in smaller animals, same as us humans.

a reply to: rickymouse

very very nice. You were actually rewarded or at least recognized for doing the job the correct way. Kind of gives me hope.

I love the phrase 'Nobody is completely worthless, they can always serve as a bad example', did your mom ever view making the sale at all costs as being bad towards the end?

originally posted by: rickymouse

I actually did not like the sales commission system, I just liked helping people find what they needed. I would have worked just as hard if I was just paid by the hour.

This = little nuggets of hope for humanity!

a reply to: tallcool1

holy #, I completely missed this post before. but yes yes yes yes yes

I can honestly say that - even though I would be considered "lower-middle class income" - I am far richer (and happier) than anyone I know in what truly matters.

yes yes yes yes yes

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
a reply to: ApacheHelicopetr

I wasn't as much of of a scam-it more was a loophole.

At 12:47 every sunday night, the banks' computers would go down for five minutes, allowing you to draw money out-even if your account was empty, but it cost you fees.

People need to eat and I don't regret what I did, unlike politicians who take your money so they can get helicopter rides and get extra grated truffles on their imported ricotta pasta salad. Where I come from people can be fined for taking food from supermarket rubbish bins-despite the fact they are still good. That's not robbery in my eyes. 'you didn't pay for it so it's theft, but let us get some reimbursement for our wastage of food."

Those poor conglomerates.

That's not a scam...it's called overdraft...

That reminds me of my Buddy who thought he was scamming banks by using mobile deposits to deposit his disability cheques into multiple banks then withdraw the money...

Funny enough...it wasn't a scam...he just ended up owing a lot of money.

Sorry to go all religious on everyone but Satan (or Stan if you prefer) is the father of lies. Much of success in today's world is predicated on lies and falsehood; who does well financially? - Politicians, Lawyers, Actors (pretending to someone else), Big Pharma (pushing drugs that make us sicker) and the list goes on. It works for the most part because people want to believe in the inherent goodness of others (a big reason for the success of socialism). It's sickening to see old people getting ripped off by scammers and the poor by politicians promising "Hope and Change".

You're not 100% correct but a fair portion of the well-off have gotten there by deceit.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
a reply to: rickymouse

very very nice. You were actually rewarded or at least recognized for doing the job the correct way. Kind of gives me hope.

I love the phrase 'Nobody is completely worthless, they can always serve as a bad example', did your mom ever view making the sale at all costs as being bad towards the end?

My mother actually believed she was saving these women money. The thing is, the products were expensive and most times this led to women buying things they did not need, stuff they used for a little while to justify their purpose but in the end they were stuck in the closet or sold at a rummage sale for pennies on the dollar of what they paid.

I forgot, she also sold that dog food that you put into containers and used a special nutrient to add to the water to make them grow in the water. I think it was Deco plants. It was expensive and I think that real topsoil from outside was better for growing the plants in. You needed to heat the soil to kill some bugs but it did work better than the Deco system. It was basically a sort of hydroponics. She even promoted it to the young for growing pot....talk about a salesman.

She was brainwashed and brainwashed everyone under her, she was the Stanley Regional Manager of our area. The only thing I liked Stanley was their kitchen broom those days, they did make a decent hand brush too. Most people do need brooms and a little brush. You could get most of what she sold for cheaper in the stores, even when you considered making some commission, or you did not need it in the first place.

We got rid of our Microwave, we really did not need it but were convinced it was necessary.

We got rid of our big expensive beater, we do just as well with a handheld decent quality beater.

We got rid of the electric canopener, the crank hand one we have works great and is easier to use than holding the can up to the electric one.

A lot of things we thought we need are now history, more work to clean than the time to use the manual versions that take a minute to wash.

We no longer use our dishwasher, it got a little leak in the drain hose, but having it required us to have way too many dishes stacked in the cupboards so we wash them after our meals....it takes less time than filling the dishwasher and putting the clean ones away overall, plus no cleaning out the drain screen after the dishwasher overflows anymore. It makes a good place to store the vaccuum packer and a dozen bottles of wine.

Simplifying our life when possible has led to better health because we actually have to move our bodies instead of being couch potatoes watching tv and snacking.

I learned a lot from my mother. She was a good women, she believed what she was doing was good, she was brainwashed to think she was helping others but actually, nobody really benefitted from it. Just because people think they are doing good does not mean they really are.

a reply to: rickymouse

ah, sorry for my misjudgement. I am glad it was a warm home and not done out of malice.

That is kind of scary though. I came across the view that no one really does things out of ill will or spite, but always through what they think are good intentions. Maybe even our elected officials are not really evil, but that will be a hard one to rewire the brain around. If so and people do things with good intentions producing evil results, we are so screwed. Oh well, back to studying wicked problems that any actions to correct will just create super wicked problems instead.

fun fun fun

originally posted by: ClovenSky
a reply to: rickymouse

ah, sorry for my misjudgement. I am glad it was a warm home and not done out of malice.

That is kind of scary though. I came across the view that no one really does things out of ill will or spite, but always through what they think are good intentions. Maybe even our elected officials are not really evil, but that will be a hard one to rewire the brain around. If so and people do things with good intentions producing evil results, we are so screwed. Oh well, back to studying wicked problems that any actions to correct will just create super wicked problems instead.

fun fun fun

If I find a twenty dollar bill on the floor in a grocery store, It is good for me but bad for the person who lost it. If I see someone looking around I would ask them what they are looking for, if they said they dropped their grocery money I would give it to them. But unless I saw the money fall from someone, I would not even ask them if they lost a twenty dollar bill, that would be stupid. I would wait around to see if someone comes looking though.

One day A younger woman pulled out her wallet from her purse and a dollar fell out, I picked it up and tapped her on the shoulder, she looked at me like I was some sort of crazy person and I held out the dollar and I said she dropped it. She told me it was not hers, I told her I saw it fall out of her purse and she took it like she was doing me a favor by accepting it. I now think, why did I bother telling her I saw it fall, especially after that snobby look she gave me. I was dressed in dirty clothes, coming from my shop. I probably had five times as much money as this woman has, yet she looked at me like a bum because I was not dressed well, working in my woodshop all day. A shop most guys would drool over.

People in this country these days judge people wrongly, some of the richest people I know will be dressed in shabby clothes when doing a dirty job. They did not get rich wearing their good clothes to do work that destroys the cloths, you dress for the situation. People used to be aware of this. It has changed over the years. I feel sorry for people like this that have false beliefs about things and you cannot convince them their beliefs are wrong most times, especially women.

a reply to: dfnj2015

Absolutely, but it's not just an American thing this is how it is for the vast majority of us all over the globe.

originally posted by: dug88

originally posted by: Thecakeisalie
a reply to: ApacheHelicopetr

I wasn't as much of of a scam-it more was a loophole.

At 12:47 every sunday night, the banks' computers would go down for five minutes, allowing you to draw money out-even if your account was empty, but it cost you fees.

People need to eat and I don't regret what I did, unlike politicians who take your money so they can get helicopter rides and get extra grated truffles on their imported ricotta pasta salad. Where I come from people can be fined for taking food from supermarket rubbish bins-despite the fact they are still good. That's not robbery in my eyes. 'you didn't pay for it so it's theft, but let us get some reimbursement for our wastage of food."

Those poor conglomerates.

That's not a scam...it's called overdraft...

That reminds me of my Buddy who thought he was scamming banks by using mobile deposits to deposit his disability cheques into multiple banks then withdraw the money...

Funny enough...it wasn't a scam...he just ended up owing a lot of money.

How is then the banks lost a class action against them and were forced to pay back the money.

It was a scam, they were charging people $35 even if your account went 2 cents overdrawn.

a reply to: rickymouse

You are a braver person than I am. If I see money laying on the ground, I simply ignore it. I have no idea of the karma that is attached to that object (not sure it even works that way, but you never know). I guess if I saw someone drop it, I would try to return it, not for the person who lost it, but for me. I see it as a gift from reality to build a positive character. I could care less how the person reacts, but I don't scorn the good vibes if they are there.

Like holding the door open for people. Some of the younger females now frown or show displeasure. I just smile and nod, which seems to upset them even more. Free entertainment.

originally posted by: ClovenSky
a reply to: rickymouse

You are a braver person than I am. If I see money laying on the ground, I simply ignore it. I have no idea of the karma that is attached to that object (not sure it even works that way, but you never know). I guess if I saw someone drop it, I would try to return it, not for the person who lost it, but for me. I see it as a gift from reality to build a positive character. I could care less how the person reacts, but I don't scorn the good vibes if they are there.

Like holding the door open for people. Some of the younger females now frown or show displeasure. I just smile and nod, which seems to upset them even more. Free entertainment.

Yeah, I have noticed that some of the younger women look strangely at you if you open the door for them. They look at you like you are some sort of pervert sometimes. I guess you have to be good enough for them to do something polite for them. Most yet though, the woman goes in, and if there is a second door, they hold it open for us, I guess since we are senior citizens now, they show they do respect the gesture. It is a strange world when you do something polite and people think you are nuts. That's life these days, I for one do not like what I am seeing happen, but there is a ray of new hope happening, I am noticing that some of the people are starting to get morals and politeness again even without Christianity driving it. But it is still not nearly as good as it was thirty years ago.

a reply to: rickymouse

I get excited about some of the stories of gen Z. I think our newest generation is going to completely #k the status quo. I think they are going to fight against PC and the SJW movement. I really hope your last point is true. Time to replace faux religious spirituality with real spirituality. Time to act correctly, not because some book or fear of a god, but because it is simply right. It is the way of this reality. Then we become pure, stagnate and the world blows up, only to go through this cycle again and again. I hope I have enough player credits left for a few more rides in this amusement park.

senior citizen huh? Excuse me while I digest that for a while (and maybe cry a bit). I am good with aging and the challenges that come with it, but that is a HUGE line to cross. Damn, I am viewed as a perv now even through kind actions...

originally posted by: ClovenSky
a reply to: rickymouse

I get excited about some of the stories of gen Z. I think our newest generation is going to completely #k the status quo. I think they are going to fight against PC and the SJW movement. I really hope your last point is true. Time to replace faux religious spirituality with real spirituality. Time to act correctly, not because some book or fear of a god, but because it is simply right. It is the way of this reality. Then we become pure, stagnate and the world blows up, only to go through this cycle again and again. I hope I have enough player credits left for a few more rides in this amusement park.

senior citizen huh? Excuse me while I digest that for a while (and maybe cry a bit). I am good with aging and the challenges that come with it, but that is a HUGE line to cross. Damn, I am viewed as a perv now even through kind actions...

A friend of mine told me last week...getting old isn't for woosies.

originally posted by: JAGStorm

originally posted by: ApacheHelicopetr

Pretty much Everyone at the top got there by screwing someone else over or dodging taxes or taking some other short cut

.

Sure there are some that are crooks and cheated, but there are also a lot of people in high places that work 80hr a week, that put work over family and friends. Saying everyone got there by screwing someone or cheating is lazy thinking.

Yeah they screwed over family and friends.

Someone is screwed somewhere. Only a fool plays by the rules.

I'm old. Really old.

I've seen a lot, across many decades:

1. The bottle ruins everything
When I was a young man I worked in law enforcement. The vast majority of people I dealt with, whether villain, victim or witnesses, were drunk. EVERY evil genius I met, whose empire was crashing down around them, being drunk was part of their downfall.

2. Crime is HARD WORK
It's actually much more effort to feed a lie that you have birthed into the world, than it is to just do your job. You have to feed the lie to keep it from dying on you and stinking up your life. But every day you feed it, it grows bigger. Finally, when you don't have enough food to satisfy it, it turns on you. It's like feeding a grizzly bear from a bag of potato chips. The bear loves you--until you reach the bottom of the bag...

Most criminals are such because the aren't capable of doing a day's work. Most of them are too stupid to hire; but lots of them are sick, as in diabetes or a missing limb or seizures etc.

Most of them have spent big chunks of life behind bars. Bad food, bad mattress and bad sex.

You see the high-end scams and it looks tempting. But those people loose their health due to constant worry. They take speed to wake up every morning, downers to go to bed every night, and anti depressants all the time.

Don't believe me, watch "the smartest guy in the room," the story of Enron. It's a perfect example. Within 5 years of getting caught, every one of those a-holes was dead of a heart attack, cancer or stroke.

Even when you succeed, the payoff is mostly in hookers and coke. The hookers give you some incurable std brainworm, and loot your palace when you are passed out from the coke. And then their pimp calls the cops on you, so you get arrested in possession blow, so you cannot retaliate from prison, where you pay his gang to avoid being raped to death. and then the IRS audits you, and finds your REAL crimes.

Then you get cancer from the stress.

It may not pay to be honest. But at least you can sleep at night and don't have somebody offering to hide his shiv in your prison pocket during lights out, or hit you over the head with a slock then carve you a new exit in the prison laundry.

Oh yeah and prostitutes.
When you find a dead body in an urban area, it isn't like law and order. It's a stiff with head trauma, no wallet or jewelry, but a cell phone. It is always some schmo from out of town. The whore figured why settle for a hundred when she can have the whole wallet, and her pimp hit the schmo over the head with a brick from behind.