18th Feb 2009, 23:32
"Wealthy people do not get where they are by throwing money away, or concerning themselves with exhibitions of wealth like fancy cars or expensive houses."
I agree. From what I have observed, the people who earned the money drive sensible cars. Fancy cars are driven by people who inherited the money, or just got the cars on credit and don't really have the money.
I am kind of having an interesting time watching the automobiles of my nice neighbors two blocks away that last year tore down a $500,000 house and spent $2,500,000 building a nice house so they could be next door to their elderly mother and father. You know they don't care about the fact their house will never be valued anywhere near what they spent building it since it is so much more expensive than any house within a half-mile radius of them.
They own one of the biggest construction firms in our small state, and I see their names in the paper on the lists of contributors to miscellaneous elected officials in dollar amounts that would buy most of us a nice new car. I think they drive what they like and don't care what people think about it. What I see in their compound are some sensible cars for weekdays. I see a Sable, a Civic, a Focus, an Acura TL, some kind of big Buick SUV, a C class Mercedes and a Mercedes SLK. There are a couple of other cars I can't remember. But then sometimes on weekends when the garage doors are open, we see a Ferrari, a Maserati, and a Lamborghini. It kind of makes me wonder what I would drive if money truly were no object.
18th Feb 2009, 12:24
That might be true if that were actually the case. The reason we are in the situation we're in is because for close to 30 years - yes that means as far back as Reagan - the largest lobbies in Washington are ALL either real estate, investment banking, or mortgage related lobbies whom are the biggest contributors to political campaigns. That includes both parties, Presidents, Senators, Congressmen, and so on. Untold hundreds of millions of dollars per year from real estate and mortgage industries alone. All in an effective effort to get politicians to look the other way as these industries became more and more deregulated and chaotic.
Turning to God is fine. But turning to Politicians and getting them to stop accepting outright bribes from corporations and industrial groups is the way to fix this problem.