Op Ed states: "If you stay poor, you're to blame because it"

[amigocabal]

From the following So called 'News'

No one can blame you if you start out in life poor, because how you start is not your fault. If you stay poor, you're to blame because it is your fault. Nowhere has this been made clearer than in Dennis Kimbro's new book, "The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires."

Kimbro, a business professor at Clark Atlanta University, conducted extensive face-to-face interviews, took surveys and had other interactions with nearly 1,000 of America's black financial elite, many of whom are multimillionaires, to discover the secret of their success. Kimbro's seven-year study included wealthy blacks such as Byron E. Lewis, Tyler Perry, Daymond John, Bob Johnson, Cathy Hughes and Antonio Reed. Kimbro says that many of today's black multimillionaires started out poor or worse. So what were their strategies?

"The Wealth Choice" argues that wealth (millionaireship) is not a function of circumstance, luck, environment or the cards you were dealt. Instead, wealth is the result of a conscious choice, action, faith, innovation, effort, preparation and discipline. Or, in the words of billionaire W. Clement Stone, founder of Combined Insurance, whom Kimbro met with and mentions early in the book, "Try, try, try, and keep on trying is the rule that must be followed to become an expert in anything." He also said, "If you cannot save money, the seeds of greatness are not in you." Saving is necessary for investment and wealth accumulation. Therein lies much of the problem for many black Americans.

Kimbro gives us some statistics to highlight some of the problem. The median net worth, or wealth, of white households is 20 times that of black households. In 2009, 35 percent of black households had no wealth or were in debt. Twenty-four percent of black Americans spend more than they earn, compared with 14 percent of all Americans. Thirty-two percent of blacks do not save at all, compared with less than 25 percent of all Americans. To underscore these statistics, Earl Graves Jr., CEO of Black Enterprise magazine, said that blacks are six times as likely as whites to purchase a Mercedes-Benz and that blacks who purchase Jaguars have an income one-third less than whites who purchase the same vehicles.

Some, but not all, of the explanation for the wealth differences between blacks and whites has to do with inheritances. Slavery, poverty and gross discrimination didn't create the conditions for inheritances. But slavery and gross discrimination cannot explain today's lack of saving and investing. Nobody's saying that marshaling the resources for wealth is easy. Gaining wealth is a challenge, as singer Ray Charles lamented in his hit song "Them That Got": "That old saying 'them that's got are them that gets' is something I can't see. If you gotta have something before you can get something, how do you get your first is still a mystery to me." But as John Harold Johnson, who rose above abject poverty and racial discrimination to build a publishing empire, said, "if you want to know how people feel about themselves, look at their bank account. ... Wealth is less a matter of circumstance than it is a matter of knowledge and choice."

"The Wealth Choice" suggests several disciplines that can be only summarized here. Among them are: Be passionate, and focus on unique strengths; develop clear, delineated goals. Then develop strong work ethic. Recognize the power of ideas, and never consider the possibility of failure. Be thrifty and frugal in nature. My stepfather put Kimbro's list of self-disciplines in another way. He said: If you want to be successful at anything, you have to come early and stay late.

When Dr. Kimbro graciously sent me a copy of "The Wealth Choice," he included an 18-minute video, titled "In Conversation with Dr. Dennis Kimbro." On top of putting together an excellent book, he reveals himself as an excellent motivational speaker who should be speaking to young people regardless of race.

So there you have it people!
The answer to the long mystery of why people are poor!.
Its because they are LAZY!
Likewise if you have no money in your savings account, it is evidently NOT Because you are struggling against crushing debt, or overwhelming bills, or trying to pay for a family all on your one. No no no, it is because you just aren't TRYING hard enough!
Now go out there you lazy bums and become Millionaires!

The experience of primitive hunter-gatherer tribes in ancient times is sufficient to refute that notion.

Certainly, hunter-gatherer tribes had little wealth. were they lazy?

[xthetenth]

Having lived as a poor person, I also feel compelled to ask how OLD is that "Mercedes"?

I discovered some reasons at least some poor people buy Cadillacs that aren't immediately obvious:
1) Because they were a decently built car, older Cadillacs can still be obtained used, and there are enough junkers to supply parts when needed.
2) They purchase an old car that needs work at a low price
3) The car is old enough that a shade-tree mechanic can get it running and keep it running without specialized tools
4) In many locations a car past a certain age doesn't need to pass emissions tests

So if it's a brand new luxury car yes, I have to wonder, but if it's 20 years old it might actually be a more reasonable choice.

Speaking entirely from personal recollection, I tend to see black drivers of old Mercedes cars and white drivers of new Mercedes cars but very seldom the reverse. And a lot of the time those older cars are still in great shape, much better than most cars their age. An old luxury car offers a cheaper way to get features that simply aren't available in that price range otherwise, so it makes a lot of sense especially with good repair prospects to offset potentially needing maintenance. Regarding the other point about cars, that blacks who purchase Jaguars have an income one-third less than whites who purchase the same vehicles, if that is a statement about median income of Jaguar buyers, are the poorest blacks and poorest whites buying them actually at very different income levels or is it just that the wealth distribution in those two races is such that there's a higher end of white incomes that there just isn't in mass in the sample of black incomes?

Also, as said earlier, there's massive bias in selecting the millionaires. Of course their work paid off, that's the very definition of the sample set. That nearly all the rich worked hard most certainly doesn't imply that most hard workers got rich.

[Starglider]

Certainly, hunter-gatherer tribes had little wealth. were they lazy?

Compared to early agricultural tribes, yes. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle required much less effort.