\"Everything in life is luck\"
 

-Donald Trump.


Thoughts?

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

The average European cow makes more money from subsidies than the average African working male.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

Agree. Even our motivation is a culmination of upbringing, genetics, environment, likelihood of success, natural ability, health, past record of successes and failures, and a million other factors.

The problem is that there are so many billions of factors determining every tiny happening in existence that next to nothing can be predicted, fully explained, or excused. This is where religion comes to the rescue.

This is not to downplay the role of personal initiative or personal responsibility but just to say that personal initiative itself comes from somewhere.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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Thoughts?

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I think you have the same daily poker calender that I got two of for Christmas?

[That was the quote for June 14.]

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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Thoughts?

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I think you have the same daily poker calender that I got two of for Christmas?

[That was the quote for June 14.]

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Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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"Everything in life is luck"

-Donald Trump.


Thoughts?

[/ QUOTE ]


"You’re gonna tell me the difference between this guy and that guy is luck?"

- Gordon Gekko.





Edit: And, yes, I got one of those calendars too.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

You have to go to a higher authority than the Donald to resolve this question.

"In my experience there's no such thing as luck." -Obi Wan Kenobi

My thought is
 

You have one of those daily Vegas calendars on your desk

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

While I was stupid not to read the threads before my pointless reply, YOUR pointless reply was worse (and lazy)

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

"Piss on luck."
--Kenny Lee, Dead Solid Perfect

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

"You can expect your future luck to be no better or no worse than someone else's future luck."

Mason Malmuth

We have no excuses it would seem. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

"Luck is the residue of design."
- Branch Rickey

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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"You can expect your future luck to be no better or no worse than someone else's future luck."

Mason Malmuth

We have no excuses it would seem. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

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But this is only in the short term. ie. our lifetime.

In the game of life, our lifetime is only a small sample size compared to the lifetime of the universe.

So therefore even if our luck will even out over the long-run, we humans only life in the 'short-term'. So the culmination of all events leading to our birth will determine our 'short-term' (lifetime) luck.

Donald Trump is lucky. European cow is reasonably lucky. Average African male = not so lucky.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

"Fortune favors the brave"

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

http://img203.echo.cx/img203/4910/schoolbus9ms.gif







http://img203.echo.cx/img203/6653/ch...gsudan36zn.jpg

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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http://img203.echo.cx/img203/4910/schoolbus9ms.gifhttp://img203.echo.cx/img203/6653/ch...gsudan36zn.jpg

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That's not luck. That's our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and other past generations actually building something during their lifetimes.

Humans have lived in Africa longer than anywhere else. Yet, they remain poor because their cultures haven't accomplished much of anything relative to the rest of the world. North America was "discovered" by European explorers just over 500 years ago. In a relatively short period of time, those people built the most powerful society in the world.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

So it's skill that youu're born into the right continent now?

If so, I pwn.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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So it's skill that youu're born into the right continent now?

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Yeah seriously.

I'm pretty suprised Dynasty didn't pick that up.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

wow dynasty are you stupid? were you dropped as a kid?

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

In the game of life can the term getting lucky mean finding the right man/women/cow to spend our days with?

Luck=Happiness to me

And I think poor people, even the starving ones can "have" more than we realize. Or we "have" less than we want to admit.

So I still think Mason is right. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

"You can expect your future luck to be no better or no worse than someone else's future luck."

Mason Malmuth

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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wow dynasty are you stupid? were you dropped as a kid?

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This will be deleted in like 5 seconds.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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wow dynasty are you stupid? were you dropped as a kid?

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This will be deleted in like 5 seconds.

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At first when sponger said this to me on AIM I wasn't sure if he meant my post or Dynasty's post because Dynasty's post is so goddamed retarded, figured he might be embarrased to write that sort of thing.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

Life luck is like poker luck. To the unobservant it is all luck. The skilled players realize there is a lot of skill in stacking the deck in thier favor before luck takes over.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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wow dynasty are you stupid? were you dropped as a kid?

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This will be deleted in like 5 seconds.

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At first when sponger said this to me on AIM I wasn't sure if he meant my post or Dynasty's post because Dynasty's post is so goddamed retarded, figured he might be embarrased to write that sort of thing.

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Everything I wrote in that post is true.

American children being born into a more affluent country isn't luck. It happened because of the hard work and accomplishments of previous generations.

It's not as if you (or anyone else) could have been born somewhere else. It's not like there was some kind of lottery to be determine where you would be born.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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That's not luck. That's our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and other past generations actually building something during their lifetimes.

Humans have lived in Africa longer than anywhere else. Yet, they remain poor because their cultures haven't accomplished much of anything relative to the rest of the world. North America was "discovered" by European explorers just over 500 years ago. In a relatively short period of time, those people built the most powerful society in the world.

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D,

Have you read "Guns, Germs and Steel"? You probably won't agree with much of it (I don't either) but it's a good read on exactly this kind of topic.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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Everything I wrote in that post is true.

American children being born into a more affluent country isn't luck. It happened because of the hard work and accomplishments of previous generations.

It's not as if you (or anyone else) could have been born somewhere else. It's not like there was some kind of lottery to be determine where you would be born.

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Ok a couple questions

1) Can you choose where you are born?
2) Do you consider yourself lucky to be born in the united states as opposed to sudan or zaire?
3) Do you think the little boy in the picture considering himself unlucky to be born into a family that cannot afford to feed him?

You weren't born into the united states because of your own personal hard work. I understand you think that the people who were able to move to the united states and prosper are smarter than the people who still live in africa, but it has nothing to do with an unborn child.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

"Humans have lived in Africa longer than anywhere else. Yet, they remain poor because their cultures haven't accomplished much of anything relative to the rest of the world. North America was "discovered" by European explorers just over 500 years ago. In a relatively short period of time, those people built the most powerful society in the world. "

Dynasty, what are you saying here anyway? It sounds to me like you are saying Africans have lived their long so they should all other things being equal be more advanced than other places. They aren't more advanced, they're less advanced so the explination is, Europeans are superior to Africans. I mean, this is a joke if that's what you're saying, is that what you're saying?

"American children being born into a more affluent country isn't luck. It happened because of the hard work and accomplishments of previous generations."

Okay, I have an interesting idea, the person in poverty living a miserable existence is who we are concerned with here, so why don't we look at this issue from their perspective? Makes sense, no? Clearly, from their perspective it's all luck.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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It happened because of the hard work and accomplishments of previous generations.


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True, but being born as one of the 300 million Americans and not the billion+ Africans and Chinese people is very good luck.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

Yes Dynasty, you are right. Sort of. As a species, race, etc, it is not "luck" that ultimately determins your fate in the long run(although a determinist might disagree with that statement).

As an individual though, you quite clearly have no choice as to which family/country/continent you are born into, and are stuck with the burdon/blessing of having to make the best of what you were given.

That being said, I think the majority of people would agree that that little african boy is sh!t-outa-luck.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

I'm not trying to make any grand statement and am certainly not saying one group of people are superior to another. (Although, American and European cultures have certainly been far more successful)

But, the view expressed in the pictures above was basically "American children are growing up in a prosperous nation and African (I assume) children are growing up in extreme poverty due to luck". That's an overly simplistic and ridiculous observation.

American children are growing up in a prosperous nation for damn good reasons. Americans made the nation prosperous.

It sometimes seems like people who are making the luck arguement (which has been posted before in the last few months) want to beleive that children are randomly assigned what countries they are being born into.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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It happened because of the hard work and accomplishments of previous generations.


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True, but being born as one of the 300 million Americans and not the billion+ Africans and Chinese people is very good luck.

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It wasn't luck. There was no possibility I could have been born in to an African family with African parents.

The odds of me being born an American were 1:1.

I understand what people are saying. But, it's just a silly arguement they're making.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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...want to beleive that children are randomly assigned what countries they are being born into.



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Quite possibly the most unbelievable thing I have ever read

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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It wasn't luck. There was no possibility I could have been born in to an African family with African parents.

The odds of me being born an American were 1:1.

I understand what people are saying. But, it's just a silly arguement they're making.

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Given the assumption there isn't such a thing as a soul or spirit, your claim is correct.

However, you can't prove a soul exists or even doesn't exist.

Given the assumption that there is such a thing as a soul or spirit (disclaimer: I am agnostic) your claim is incorrect and their argument is anything but silly.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

My soul is American. Otherwise, I wouldn't be giving Wal-Mart such big hugs.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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The odds of me being born an American were 1:1.

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hmmm

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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The odds of me being born an American were 1:1.

[/ QUOTE ]
hmmm

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Yeah, there was a 50% chance he could have been born Chinese.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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The odds of me being born an American were 1:1.

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hmmm

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Yeah, there was a 50% chance he could have been born Chinese.

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at least he's not a bird.
i'd hate to be a bird.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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My soul is American. Otherwise, I wouldn't be giving Wal-Mart such big hugs.

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You remind me of my dad.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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http://img203.echo.cx/img203/4910/schoolbus9ms.gifhttp://img203.echo.cx/img203/6653/ch...gsudan36zn.jpg

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That's not luck. That's our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and other past generations actually building something during their lifetimes.

Humans have lived in Africa longer than anywhere else. Yet, they remain poor because their cultures haven't accomplished much of anything relative to the rest of the world. North America was "discovered" by European explorers just over 500 years ago. In a relatively short period of time, those people built the most powerful society in the world.

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This has to be one of the most ignorant statements I have ever read on 2+2. Do yourself a favor and read Guns, Germs, and Steel.

And btw, the poster was referring to the fact that the children on the top were lucky not to have been born in the same conditions (i.e. into poverty in a desolate region of the earth) as the child on the bottom.

Re: \"Everything in life is luck\"
 

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My soul is American. Otherwise, I wouldn't be giving Wal-Mart such big hugs.

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Hmmm... what exactly does one have to do to become a moderator? I'm starting to think it is based on luck.