Mark Twain:<\/p>\n
When a great orator makes a great speech you are listening to ten centuries and ten thousand men \u2014 but we call it\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0speech, and really some exceedingly small portion of it\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0his.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Salvador Dal\u00ed:<\/p>\n
Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Mark Twain on Plagiarism and Originality: “All Ideas Are Second-Hand”<\/a><\/p>\n
The Persistence of Poverty<\/h3>\n
Not only does poverty make it difficult to focus the mind on multiple pressing issues and distort the process by which we prioritise them; but also the very nature and quantity of these issues reduce the motivation to even start trying.<\/p>\n
One conclusion I think can be soundly drawn from these ideas: any traditional notion of “tough love” or “getting tough” on lazy poor people that blames them for their lots in life while downplaying their socioeconomic context is, to a first and second and third approximation, bullshit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Poor Choices<\/a><\/p>\n
Poverty Thoughts<\/h3>\n
Poverty is bleak and cuts off your long-term brain.<\/p>\n
I will never not be poor. It’s not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn’t that I blow five bucks at Wendy’s. It’s that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be. It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, poverty thoughts<\/a><\/p>\n
America: The swing of the pendulum between Capital and Labour<\/h3>\n
1974 would mark a fundamental breakpoint in American economic history. Productivity has increased by 80%, but median compensation (wages plus benefits) has risen by just 11% during that time. The middle-income jobs of the nation’s postwar boom years have disproportionately vanished. Low-wage jobs have disproportionately burgeoned. Employment has become less secure. Benefits have been cut.<\/p>\n