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Why people are poor despite working hard?
Chapter 65
Not Breaking Your Prejudice
Do you know what my favorite restaurant is in Chicagoland?
Ikea.
We all know this is a big furniture store. But, they do have two restaurants in the Ikea building near Chicago. Their salmon sandwich ($4) and veggie balls ($4) are my favorite, not to mention the low prices. I would say their dishes are better than regular restaurants in general. They also have Greek salad ($5) with a huge portion, Veggie hotdogs ($1) and Pizza ($2). I do not know how they came up with these low prices. Maybe they suggest food without much margin to furniture customers. Have you seen a fork used in an Ikea restaurant? It is made of very thin wood and their drink section also includes Swedish fruit drinks. I can see that they put a lot of effort and consideration in the place. Regardless, I always wish we had one of those restaurants in front of my house.
Where do I buy sushi all the time?
The Polish supermarket in front of my house.
We all know sushi is a Japanese food, not a European food. Ironically, this place sells the best sushi in town. There is a very small sushi corner in the market and one real Japanese chef owns it. I would say that the taste is as good as a top rated restaurant while he uses more ingredients than others. Luckily, all the sushi are 50% off after 7:00 PM. I feel sorry that he charges less only because it is not in an expensive or popular location.
Where is the place I usually go when I crave salad? Portillo’s hot dogs.
This place is known as a hot dogs and burger place, but their garden salad is my favorite. Only thing is it’s not on the salad menu, but on the side dish menu ($4.50). The size is still a full salad portion with extra bread, dressings and everything.
Where is the best coffee shop in downtown Chicago?
The “Whole Foods” on Chicago ave and State street. This is not a Starbucks or other coffeeshop. Actually, this location opened recently in 2022 and they set up the entire first floor with new chairs and tables for its own coffee shop.
Do you know what the fastest way to downtown Chicago is from my home? Metra trains to Chicago at 7:50 AM.
Some people may think of a sports car, but it still needs to make millions of stops and signals. Also, highways would be typically crowded. The metra train at that particular time would not stop from Roselle station all the way up to in the middle of downtown Chicago for $6.75. The train goes fast or slow, but it never stops. I felt like I was in the presidential parade as I could see through the windows that all the cars were waiting for us until the train passed.
There is one famous English idiom: “Do not judge a book by its cover”; there are a lot of things we cannot fully know unless we gain some experience with it.
I watched a TV program about some weird cultures in Sweden the other day; it showed that people do not give you food when you visit your friend’s house; you have to bring your own meal since the parents of your friend will not give you anything. Also, it told me that it is common that kids pay some money to their friend’s parents when they spend some time with them; by that way, these adults can order pizza or something comfortably.
This is disgusting in my opinion. At most, it does not look very attractive. As an adult, I can push some kids to pay for their own meal somehow. Is it a fair thing to do? Probably not. Does it look good? Never. What is the reason we have to visit our friend’s house this way to begin with? I wrote this somewhere already and I have had a good feeling about Finland since I was welcomed generously in 1998. People were very kind, so I even thought it would be nice if I kept living there. I thought maybe Sweden is similar since it’s the country right next. You just do not know this unless you live there for a while.
By the way, a Mexican guy in that program said this: “If you bring your own food to my home, my mom will worry if you do not like her food.” This is right. I think Mexico is a much wealthier country than Sweden in this sense: Mexico is wealthier in generosity and food; a lot of people think wealth is just the amount of paper cash stacked or some number increased in a bank account. This is a mistake. This paper money is just a mirage or social promise, at best. I strongly believe real wealth is in kindness, generosity and sufficiency.
This prejudice applies in the case of women evenly. When I worked in the nursing home, there was one Italian girl who never really spoke. I thought she was a pretty and quiet one. A few months later, I found out that she has a strange habit of screaming for any reason. It freaked me out several times. Imagine a guy marrying her and find this later on. It will not be very pleasant if you have to hear an old woman scream. This can happen to the guy later in his life unless he divorce.
People lose money often since they are obsessed with old ideas. Sometimes, it is a little loss, but sometimes it is a loss of entire life savings. In the book titled Nomadland, a guy named Bob Wells is interviewed. He is one of the pioneers of Van life and considered as a guru in that society. And, I believe he is wealthy since his Youtube channel has a great amount of viewers. This is what he said during the interview.
“When I moved into the Van, I realized that everything that society had told me was a lie — that I had to get married and live in a house with a white picket fence and go to work, and then be happy at the very end of my life, but be miserable until then.”
For your information, Bob was married and had two sons, but divorced. He said he is living happier in a van now. The point is a lot of people follow prejudice as if it is their destiny without thinking or objection. Particularly, these Korean parents push marriage violently to their children. I was one of the victims who were pushed for many years. I just got one child since nothing extraordinarily great happened in my life until I became 37, anyway. But, I decided not to get pushed any more after one child. It is not like I do not like my daughter. She is a great person and definitely better than other children, honestly. But, I am not particularly enjoying playing with a baby 24/7 and just do not want to live a life I did not plan on my own.
In my opinion, there are a few prejudices we must break before getting filthy poor. This might be especially true for Latin Americans living in the USA.
Having a lot of children is way to go
You will be rich if you work hard
You will be very rich if you invest in real estates (not necessarily true in America due to high property taxes)
Expensive things are better things
Having a tutor will solve academic problem of your child
Going to Ivy League with debt will make you rich
Buy stocks and you will be rich
Never skip meals
Rice is the healthiest food in the world (Korea)
Ukrainians are weak people (Russia’s mistake)You can save tons of money just because you break these prejudices and see real things. Whenever I go to libraries, I hardly see Latin Americans studying even though Latin Americans are over 15% of the U.S. population. I honestly do not think their future is that bright in a money sense in America. One thing I notice is that they blindly go for more kids no matter what. The Hispanics born in the USA do not do that, though; some Mexican descendents who speak English fluently are single. I guess they have brains regardless of economic situation: They do not live automatically as their parents did. And, this is a good sign to be wealthy. But, those native Spanish speakers are crazy. They act rashly as if producing more children is a sort of religion.
And, let me tell you the biggest lie in our lifetime: “You will be rich if you work longer.” The truth is that a lot of people are poor even though they work to death. Also, some people are rich though they do not work at all. The secret is how to use the system: collecting assets, in other words.
Do you know what is the best way to get out of the poverty trap?
Thinking, in my opinion.
I notice that a lot of blue collar workers blast music automatically and never really have some quiet time on their own. Instead of turning on music unconsciously, I suggest they have one hour of quiet time to think a day. Sometimes, people call it meditation or praying. It does not matter whatever they call it: Time to think will save your life eventually. In the real world, you have to find a solution for your particular situation. I would say that one hour of thinking would be equivalent to ten hours of working in a money sense: Thinking will bring you money; it will get you out of poverty. This is why those Mexican dishwashers never even own a house after working for thirty years. They pump up music in the kitchen and work, but never think as the noise interrupts them to do so. I do not believe these people will ever get out of poverty this way.