Change A Life

[008]

If you had the chance to change just 1 persons life, would you?

This has got me thinking how often this happens. Sadly many people can change another life yet it doesn't even cross their minds. I would bet in most cases the person could d this without even knowing. How do people justify living in mansions knowing there is a homeless mother and her kid(s) on the street starving.

Understandably they could never solve every homeless persons life problems, but I doubt they even changed 1 life drastically.

I understand no one is entitled to do so. Maybe I have never had that opportunity to do it and this is why I can't fully understand why others don't. 

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[008]

Surprising 

[Foxpup]

How do people justify living in mansions knowing there is a homeless mother and her kid(s) on the street starving.

How can they afford to live in mansions? They'd need a ton of money, obviously. So how did they get a ton of money? Assuming they didn't steal it, they'd have to have produced something useful for the community, that someone else was willing to pay for. Most people make money by doing useful work for the benefit of other people. Businesspeople make money by creating and maintaining businesses, without which the workers would be unemployed. Ultimately, everyone who isn't a thief earns money by helping others in some way or another.

That's not to say there's no room for charity, but just making a ton of money by honest means is pretty charitable on it own.

[008]

How do people justify living in mansions knowing there is a homeless mother and her kid(s) on the street starving.

How can they afford to live in mansions? They'd need a ton of money, obviously. So how did they get a ton of money? Assuming they didn't steal it, they'd have to have produced something useful for the community, that someone else was willing to pay for. Most people make money by doing useful work for the benefit of other people. Businesspeople make money by creating and maintaining businesses, without which the workers would be unemployed. Ultimately, everyone who isn't a thief earns money by helping others in some way or another.

That's not to say there's no room for charity, but just making a ton of money by honest means is pretty charitable on it own.

If you think Walmart hasn't done its fair share of shady business to become where it is today then you are oblivious. To get anywhere you have to be ruthless and cut throat to succeed. You have to not care about the other guy.

I guess I just answered my own question.

[dfs59xy]

I agree with Foxpup... and I totally disagree about having to be ruthless.  Life is not a zero-sum game.

And I'd add... you can't truly help a man by giving him a handout.  [of course, you can't help a man by stealing from him either, but there's little hope that the socialist drones will recognize that any time soon].

So... imagine a pioneering miner from ca. 2009 who quietly mined and hoarded his BTC all of these years but then kicked the bucket, leaving 100k BTC to each of his two sons.  The noble son decides he's going to "help" the homeless by giving 20 lucky losers... erf, sorry, "winners"... 5k BTC each.  Within a few months, at least 19 of them are homeless again (probably all of them, but we'll give this foolish do-gooder a *very* lenient benefit of the doubt and assume that at least one of his recipients *really* gets their life back together).  So, the "generous" brother gets credit for changing someone's life. 

The other brother also breaks his inheritance into 5k BTC chunks, but being a greedy damned capitalist, he uses it to start 20 new alpaca farms in 20 different countries for profit!.  He hires 10 homeless people for each farm, giving a fair shake to anybody who's willing to work hard for an honest wage.  He teaches them how to raise and sheer alpaca, how to make and sell fine alpaca socks, and the most promising 2 workers at each farm also learn how to manage a business.  He hasn't denegrated anybody with a hand-out. He's taught them how to fish, so to speak, and he's made a profit doing it.  The greedy capitalist has helped roughly 200 times as many people as his generous brother.

BUT... the capitalist wasn't ruthless... he strove for mutual profit (win-win) rather than zero-sum profit.  He acted morally, and there are 200 people who appreciate his actions. 

So yes... there are ways to change people's lives... but the only one that *really* counts (IMO) is helping someone to escape slavery... and a hand-out of anything except enlightenment will only drive someone deeper into slavery.

Moreover... if you're ruthless or callous... you may appear to be "winning" on paper, but you ultimately lose in the end [but, alas, that's a much longer explanation].

[008]

You can change someones life without just handing them money. The government already hands over money to the worthless, how that been working?

I meant to get them started with a small business or something along those lines. Give them the chance to earn it. It's almost impossible to start up a legit successful company from zero. It takes money to make money.

[NickCoin]

As long as you live in the first world country, you are capable of changing people's lives in second or third world countries.

But does that necessary mean you can't enjoy all the comfort you currently take for granted? Just watch some documentary videos on how life is in certain parts of the world, it would not be too far stretch from your comparison of the person living in a mansion and a homeless one.

Life is not fair, but that is how things are.

[Foxpup]

If you think Walmart hasn't done its fair share of shady business to become where it is today then you are oblivious.

Good thing I don't think that, then. Yes, many corporation do bad things, just as many people do bad things. They can be corrupt, they can make mistakes, they even break laws sometimes if they think they can get away with it. But at the end of the day, their employees have a job and their customers can buy useful products at affordable prices. Look me straight in the eye and tell me that's not a good thing.

To get anywhere you have to be ruthless and cut throat to succeed.

Exactly. To succeed in business you must constantly strive to provide better products at cheaper prices than your competitors, and if they can't compete, then tough luck! Wait a sec... better products at cheaper prices? That sounds like it could be helpful to people! Damn those evil companies, ruthlessly trying to out-help each other!

You have to not care about the other guy.

You're not going to get very far if you don't care about your customers. Or your employees. Or your shareholders. In fact, it's not enough to merely care about them; you have to actually provide a tangible benefit to them. If you don't help all of these people, you're out of business. It's as simple as that.

I meant to get them started with a small business or something along those lines. Give them the chance to earn it. It's almost impossible to start up a legit successful company from zero. It takes money to make money.

That's actually exactly what rich people usually do with most of their money (if you think they spend most or even a significant fraction of it on mansions and fast cars, you're mistaken). They invest their money in promising businesses, giving these businesses the capital they need to get up and running, and in return the investor receives a share of the business's future profits. A new business is formed, the business owner makes money, the investor makes money, the business's employees make money; it's win-win.

[fahrenheit451]

I think this wasn't meant only in terms of money, either way you can drastically change life of someone with lots of material possession but who doesn't have this feeling of spiritual life fulfilment (and maybe doesn't even know yet). I've seen many people being unhappy with shedloads of money...

[roflplatypus]

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[1m1nd]

we change peoples lives every day

every person we interact with

everything we do, from what we do with our time to what we do with our money to the way we express ourselves

has an effect, on our social ecosystem

and it is always changing

[1m1nd]

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this post changed my life

[miningdude]

To change someone's life for a day is easy. To change someone's life and the lives of their future offspring is harder, but worthwhile. I love that I live in the first world, and I love a privileged access to technology. But with great privilege comes great responsibility, not to blindly hand money to the world's poor, but to truly make a difference through education, opportunities, better health, etc. I've just started doing this in the last year by providing education for children in India at around $1USD a day per child. The children's parents work hard as agricultural laborers to provide food, but can't afford their children's education. My $1 a day will break this cycle of poverty and one more educated child will be added to the world's population to hopefully add true value to the lives in their community. And yes, for the record the children do exist, and it isn't a scam. You can discover their Bridge of Hope program for yourself at http://www.gfa.org/. For those of you who are of other or no faith persuasion, yes, this is a Christian organization. No offense intended.

[miningdude]

Who knows? Maybe one of these Bridge of Hope children will introduce Bitcoin or some other crypto currency to rural India some day? Imagine buying rice with Bitcoin (cell phone to cell phone) instead of rupees?