The crafty preying on the foolish and weak

SolitaryRoad.com

Website owner:  James Miller

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In thinking back on the decisions that I have made over the years, thinking about the good decisions and the bad decisions, I have noted something: In most of the poor decisions that I have made over the years, there has been a special element: I was influenced by a salesman of some kind or another. In most of the good decisions that I have made, I was not influenced by anyone. I made them purely on my own judgment. This is true for financial decisions, investment decisions, and others. Left alone, without influence from anyone, I tend to make pretty good decisions. When I listen to others, I tend to make poor ones. So I have made a rule for myself: stay away from salesmen. Don’t listen to them. Don’t trust the advice of a person if he receives a commission or stands to gain from your decision. For money, people will deceive and lie. This goes for stock brokers, real estate salesmen, etc. The only one who will look after your best interests is you. No one else will. They look after their own interests. Everyone works for his own good in this world.

There is a phenomenon that I see occurring all around me. It is the phenomenon of the crafty preying on the foolish and weak. I see a dog eat dog world, people hustling for money. There are a whole lot of predators in this world. There are a lot of wolves around seeking sheep to shear. There are a lot of manipulators, people who care about no-one but themselves, looking for ways to take advantage of others. You see it when you want to get some home repair work done, when you take your motor vehicle in for repair, when you want to get dental work done, etc. There are a whole lot of con artists and tricksters around. There are a lot of people who will deceive and rip off anybody, including their own mother and father. I have often seen children attempting to manipulate, deceive and take advantage of their own mother or father or both. Sad but true. The parent may see it, but many are such fools that they don’t.

What causes a person to become a predator? There is something that I have noticed about predators that I have known. They are spenders. They squander their money. They buy what they don’t need, on impulse. They don’t save money. They don’t have any reserve. They live from week to week. So I can make some guesses. These people have bills to pay each month. They have a rent or house payment that they have to make each month. They have utility bills that they have to pay. They have credit card payments they have to make. And they have to buy groceries. If they don’t have enough money to make all the payments, they are in trouble! They can get themselves into desperate situations! When faced with a desperate situation, people will do about anything, including lying, cheating and stealing. If they have their own business, work for themselves, or work for commission, they don’t have a guaranteed amount of money coming in each month. The amount coming in may not be adequate. And when faced with a desperate situation, people will bend moral principles. When they do it once, it is easier the second time. The next thing you know, it is a habit. Their need for money turned them into crooks! They have learned an easy way of getting money! This phenomenon doesn’t happen with the prudent, frugal person who knows how to get along on little and saves money. He always lives below his means. He always has money in reserve and doesn’t have to worry about not having enough money to pay the bills. He doesn’t get himself into desperate situations the way the spender does. He works hard, invests his money, and it grows. He becomes financially independent. It is easier to maintain your personal integrity if you are financially independent. There are many other things that can cause a person to become dishonest and manipulative. The person may have grown up in a home where the parents were dishonest and manipulative. He may have acquired his dishonest ways from friends that he runs with (or once ran with).

Aug 2014