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I have a lot of thoughts about this, but I'll stick to a few for right now - because truthfully at 2200CDT on a Wednesday evening I own and run a small business - and I'm still here, today. I haven't had a guaranteed payday on Friday in a long, long time. So, here I am. Both of our political parties have their hands in our pockets. This isn't a "conservative"/"liberal" thing. It's an American political thing. Find more than a handful of our 536 elected representatives in Washington that actually understand what it takes to actually create and sustain a job. You'll be hard pressed. And, I say that as a small business owner who knows the extraordinary effort it takes to go from zero to one employee. I am successful. Truthfully, I am rich. Maybe not by every metric, but certainly by most. I've been all over the world and I know what poverty looks like. I don't have to worry about much. Every time I open the refrigerator, it's like I've won the freaking lottery. There's good food in there, and I don't have to worry about whether or not it's going to make me sick, or whether there's still going to be some in there tomorrow. Success is a funny thing, though. I work hard. I work really hard. But, as it turns out, that's not the single biggest indicator of success. In America today, the single biggest indicator of success is the level at which you can tolerate risk. And, as it turns out, I can tolerate a fair bit. Some of that is the product of decisions I made earlier in my life, but a lot of that is also luck and privilege. You can discount it, but sitting where I sit today as the managing director of one company and the CEO of a new company, those last two factors are significant. What plays into those? A non-exhaustive list off top of my head: I come from a two-parent home I never once worried about my safety at home or whether or not I would have food to eat in the morning I went to good schools where teachers knew my name, cared if I did well, and by and large actually knew something about the subject they were teaching I graduated from high school I graduated from college with no debt - scholarships and the fact that my parents were able to fund the rest of my education I went to graduate school I started a little business with a couple of friends in the 90's that was in the right place at the right time We met some people who took a liking to us who happened to worth a whole lot of money - and they mentored us I waited until I was married to have kids My wife worked while I got my first company off the ground - and she had good benefits I'm white - discount that if you want - but I walked into a bank that I've never been into in my life today and the bank president walked me out when I left On the rare occasion that the police come into my neighborhood, they always address me as sir. I've always had reliable transportation - or lived in a place that had public transportation so good you didn't need it My family has not gotten any serious illness or disease My wife is able to parent with me so that I don't have to worry about childcare so I can go to work - it doesn't even cross my mind - if my schedule changes, it's not a huge deal. Can you take away one or more of those things and still be successful? Sure. But, you're going to have to work a lot harder at it than I do - and probably for a lot longer. The fact of the matter is that now, at 42, I can start a brand new company, and it's likely that it'll be successful. I'm good at what I do, but the only reason I'm starting it is because I have both an opportunity AND the ability at this point in my life to take advantage of it. As to a CEO having a huge compensation plan while stepping on the backs of employees, there are some giant problems in America today. Frankly, the economy is being looted by financiers. So many CEO's today aren't adding much value - they're just in a position to be able to extract as many assets of value from the companies they're heading as they can. See Sears, JC Penney, Radio Shack, Kmart, et al right now if you need examples. I cannot speak for everyone, but I can tell you how I see it. I'm pretty generous with my employees. I look at it in two ways. First, you can have a large piece of a small pie, or a smaller piece of a much larger pie. I try pretty hard to bring more people to the table and give equity away generously. In doing so, yes, I own a smaller percentage of the company. But, there are a lot of people who suddenly have an equity stake in it doing well. What do you think they're going to do with that? My experience shows that they work a lot harder to create value. And, having been through it a couple of times, instead of having 80% of something that's not worth that much, I have maybe 25% of something that's worth 10 times as much. In my experience, it works out better for everyone. I also look at it from a Biblical perspective - actually an ancient Jewish perspective. In the 23rd Psalm, there's the idea of the Lord filling a cup until it overflows. In the ancient Jewish tradition, there was no idea of individual blessing/salvation - it was all community based. So, when your cup overflows it's not wasted - instead it flows out into the community around you. And, everyone is better off because of it. Sure, I don't much care for having the government tell me what to do with my money. I would just assume they left me the heck alone. But, that is coming from a position of privilege. The truth of the matter is that while I'd love it if our churches, communities and civic organizations took care of our local communities - we suck at it. And as we embrace the politics of 'the other' over the gospel, it's getting worse. I can think back to the flood in 2010. We have a major church in Nashville that was built with the intention of being a disaster relief shelter. But, when the time came to put it to use, they didn't - because it would be disruptive to services, and liability, and insurance, and safety, and our kids, and whatever... Every last one of us depends on the government for way too much. And, that's unlikely to change anytime soon. I grumble and moan every time I write a big check to the government for taxes. But, as individuals we've become way too dependent. And it's not like our churches are going to step up. Western individualism has run completely amok in American christianity. So, it's a question that doesn't have a discrete answer that fits into a neat little partisan box. Do I "deserve" more because I work hard for it? Maybe? I probably deserve more than the Instagram starlets. But there are plenty of single moms that work every bit as hard as I do every day as vet techs or as medical assistants or teachers or at Target for that matter. There are women at the Target up the street that I know for a fact are there from open until close most days. I am in a position by luck, privilege and effort that allows me to tolerate a lot of risk - and that will more often than not lead to success. That's the easy part. It gets a lot harder from there.

Wow, looking at your list I'm your polar opposite for the most part. But by my yardstick, I'm doing well, I'm retired military, and my body is not so broken that I can't hold down a job. Not rich by any means, but so far at 52 I have no monetary worries. Privileged? hardly, but I never let that stand in my way.

There is a common line of thinking today that the economy is like a pie. If someone is wealthy, it's because they took part of someone else's slice of that pie. I believe thee is more pie being made every day, and how much pie you have has no bearing on my pie. If I could make some wealthy person suddenly destitute, it would not change my lot in life whatsoever. If many people who spend their life despising successful people, and making excuses for their own failure would put some of that energy and drive into a productive pursuit, they'd soon become successful themselves, but it's easier to hate and make excuses than to jump in there and take a chance or two for one's self.

Cant wait to go shoot it!

I have been watching around kind of wanting to pick up a good deal on a Mosin Nagant. I was not looking for rarity or a matching number collector gem, just one that goes bang consistently and 1/2 way accurately. I was having no luck locally so I kept my eye out online. I didn't really need it, so I was not going to overpay for it. A little bit back I ran across one on Gunbroker that was on the low end and had a few days. It was not original and it looked like our friend Bubba had had his way with it. So I threw on a bid figuring I would get out bid. To my shock, I didn't. So at the end I saw it close at $155. I figured at least I could move the barreled receiver to a good stock. It finally came in a couple days ago. It was better than I expected. It has been transplanted to a Monte Carlo stock. Looks like a good job. But Bubba decided that a black stock required a tacticool rail. So a rail is mounted in place of the rear sight. I quickly hit eBay and have a rear sight on the way for $3. Looks like the pin was replaced with a bolt in the same diameter, so hopefully it is just a drop in swap. The bayonet is fully functional. I ran a few rounds through it for a function check and it seem to work well. I found that since I grew up hunting with a .303 Enfield that this was like an old friend aside from the loading. I need to get some stripper clips to help that long. No wonder people love these. They are simple, functional, and fun. My only change would be is that I wish this was the Archangel stock that has removable mags. That is where I like the Enfield better, but I hear mixed reviews on the mags for the Mosin. So here it is in all its glory ( cue the horrified, moaning collectors lol). I Notice now that I did not get the end of the barrel and sight in this shot, but is is there.

I've gone about it from a totally different direction from MacGyver. I took the path of least resistance. A slow , but more sure path to financial independence if you will. Although I am not averse to risk, my wife is. We've both worked hard and advanced in our jobs to the point where we make a very comfortable living, and are on track to retire at a very early age. Perhaps then, I can talk her into taking a more adventurous path. As always, MacGyver has many good points to ponder in his post. A stable family, and I'll add, a family that promotes a good work ethic and the importance of education, gives a young person a huge leg up on the competition. About the only thing I disagree with him on is the white privilege part. There's no reason, real or perceived, that a minority cannot achieve success with hard work and ambition. In many ways, current government regulations stack the odds in their favor. I will say that far too many minorities aren't raised in the a fore mentioned stable, two parent household. I've tried, and hope and pray, that we've done a decent job raising our children with the necessary tools to become successful.

@MacGyver Your post has lots of good points. I turn 42 this year too. My life has been different in several ways even thought it seems like we started in the same place. My Dad worked hard and long to make sure we did not feel poor and my Mom stayed home after my younger sibling was born to make sure we got to and from school, had homework help, and a hot supper. I graduated high school at the top of my class and got my Bachelor degree. I worked an outside job and lived cheap in college because my parents couldn't cover the tuition left over after my scholarships and on campus work-study. At the end of 4 years, I could not fathom going farther because I was tired from juggling school work, my job, and the work hours demanded by my scholarship. I did graduate owing nothing though. Now, I work hard like my Dad and Papaw showed me, but I seem to be drawn to companies that end up having layoffs or close outright. That has really hurt me income wise because each time is a setback in pay to start somewhere new. And between jobs any thing that is in savings get cannibalized to pay the bills. So my family is only as good as it is because my wife works and has been at the same place for a lot of years. Even though we gripe about her being looked over for raises and promotions at times, the normal raise structure there has kept her income slowly, but consistently growing. So she is the main breadwinner when the numbers get tallied up. I had always wanted to start my own business, but now see that I would not be comfortable with that risk because of all the past instances where my job loss caused the family to have to sacrifice. My Dad was laid off a few times, once as long as a year, but I never remember feeling strain at home about money. I can't say the same about when I have been out of work. I do the finances and I have been keenly aware of how close we were to living out of the car a few times. So I avoid risk so that I do not have to experience that again. My kids are older now and they would be very aware of how bad things are if we got back into that shape.

I'd have to agree but I never really made the connection until now. I've never been a risk taker and I believe I've probably held myself back because of it. It's weird, I'm conscious of this "flaw" but still not brave enough to change it. Thanks @MacGyver for this post. You've given me some things to think about.

Many are greedy, some are rich. The ones who complain the most don't work hard enough to become rich.

Rich people giving away their riches didn't impress Jesus. Mark 12:41-44 41 Now Jesus sat opposite the treasury and saw how the people put money into the treasury. And many who were rich put in much. 42 Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites,[j] which make a quadrans. 43 So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; 44 for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”

If you want to set yourself up to be an owner and not a worker, save every nickel you can. If you want to be a wealthy worker, save every nickel you can. Don't live the American Dream on credit, don't think eating out for lunch and dinner multiple times a week is a good investment, cut out legal sin (excessive alcohol, tobacco and partying) and don't gamble with the rent or milk money. Designer brands (of anything)...if the extra cost equates to greater quality or longevity, go for it. If it is more important to show the tag, well player, you've been played. I come from highly educated family but did not complete college. I learned from that environment one must work and invest quality time to achieve whatever level of success I wanted to achieve. To Mac's point, want to compete with the 800 pound gorilla? What are you doing as an owner or worker to cause the consumer to drive past the competition to buy and keep buying from you? Be Amazing, be Exceptional, be your Best...both in your professional life AND AND YOUR HOME LIFE. Don't leave it all on the professional field, you have to play a double header every day, at work and at home

Got this a few years ago, old AX case and put this in it

Geez. i disagree. If you want to make the money of a CEO, strive to be one and become one. If you want to get govt mandated raises and a "living wage" for doing menial work that doesn't take a special skill set, prepare to be replaced by a robot or machine and wait for your handout. Crooks and politicians! I label those lacking ethics and the moral incapacity to do the right thing for the right reason crooks as well.

Folks, This will definitely be happening, Im offshore just crossing the Equator for the 4th time in my career, en route to Brazil from Gran Canaries Spain anyway a package arrived at my home from Protech that I was not expecting, I am guessing it will be the TGO Dark Angel Prototype, I will be home in 3 weeks then I will know pricing and launch the official thread, God Bless you all!

No mater how you slice it, it's a good rifle, congrats!

Congratulations, my friend! It is one of my all time favorite rimfire cans. I saw your post on ARFCOM last night and it inspired me to photograph my own combo this morning.

I disagree. He clearly is impressed with the sacrifice from the giving.

In the past month, I have shot at Strategic Edge twice. I waited 6 months for my application to be approved and it was well worth the wait. The facility is first class, Tony is a stand up guy, and the members are fantastic. There is nothing better than hearing the sweet sound of steel! I recently purchased a Knight's Armament SR-25 EMC and I am happy that I now have a range where I can stretch her legs.

It's entirely possible at this point that Bill Gates will be remembered for his charity more than his role at Microsoft. His obituary will at the very least have two distinctive parts. I've worked for Microsoft, and one thing you will not hear from their employees is that their management team has gotten rich by stepping on their employees' backs. Microsoft has made a few billionaires and thousands of millionaires. Warren Buffett is probably a bit of an anomaly. At the very least he's a mathematical savant was also in the right place at the right time. Fun fact about Buffett, though. He basically gave his entire fortune to Bill and Melinda Gates a few years ago on one condition - that the entire fortune be spent on charitable work in their lifetimes.

I have mixed feelings on this white privilege. I think the idea is that if you are born into a successful or wealthy family you are more likely to also become wealthy. I do think that being born into a poor family may make your path harder but not impossible. I agree that this is often used as an excuse. I've seen it go both ways. I've known kids that were born into solid middle class families turn out to be completely worthless due to their own choices. ...deleted my last paragraph, came across different than I intended.

I see the difference as how many people they trampled to get where they are. Also a good indicator is if they feel themselves above the rules we are obliged to follow.

Or perhaps a Pepto Bismol fan

The data is pretty clear on this stuff. There are two consistent factors that are most present in cases where a family achieves financial stability in America today. They are: Someone in the family unit has gotten as much education as they could They've waited until they're married to have kids If you want a surefire formula - the data shows that these two metrics are about as close as you can get in America today. Even then, you're still playing some odds. The risks of health calamity are always present. Health problems can bankrupt a family. As to risk taking, you're still in a pretty decent position. You're young (still under 30?), no kids(I think), and you're married so you have two incomes and as a family unit you get 336 hours in a week instead of just 168. You're in a position where you can tolerate some risk and the consequences of missing some of those assumptions simply aren't as dire. I just got accepted to one of the major startup accelerators with my new company. I didn't think they'd accept a 42 year old single founder when my competition is a bunch of 22 year old Stanford graduates. I have a lot more experience than they do, but they're in a position to tolerate a lot more risk. The data shows that the odds are in their favor. Most startups will fail. That's a known fact, and it's accounted for in the market right now. Why do people keep investing - because the consequences of being wrong are simply lower when you're in your 20's, and some of those folks are likely to take that experience and turn it around into a new venture that succeeds. Happy to talk about it sometime if you like.

You've definitely got my sincerest admiration - though like me, I sincerely doubt you do much to seek that affirmation. Your service means - if I'm doing my math right since the first Gulf War - that you've seen more hardship - both overseas and at home while you've been deployed than most CEO's in a corner office will ever experience. Your story is just as relevant as theirs. One is valued more in society and by our political class, though. And, that's a shame.

This is the whole issue with the left, they want everybody's money in the worst way.

I think the NRA had a part with this bill because it involves lawsuit money being awarded basically to the NRA if a city or county violates the pre emption statute. A simple bill that just changes the 'no gun' sign criminal offense to a deny of entry/remove from property would not have been written by the NRA because what would they benefit from that kind of change? If the NRA was effective in this state they would have gotten these goofy restrictions off the books when they had the convention in Nashville.

It's funny, when I read the OP and got to the part about taking what you didn't earn, I immediately assumed he was talking about all the worthless scum taking government handouts and not contributing to society. I guess that's not as big a deal as big bad corporations, huh? The great thing about America is that we aren't stuck with just complaining about what we don't have and someone else has more. We are all able to further ourselves if we choose to. I am a blue collar worker and have zero desire to have a corner office and 7 figure salary and wear a suit every day. But I could if I wanted to put forth the effort to do so. The rich are rich for a reason, they ( or their family) have contributed to society in one way or another at some point in time in a measurable way. If you want to be rich, chase your dreams and live your life to the fullest. Hell, right now we have a guy who started with a real estate investment and is now sitting in the White House. If nothing else, that proves you can go as far as your ambition and determination allows you to.

I firmly believe the folks that bitch about the rich do it purely out of jealousy. I work with a guy who was complaining about CEO salaries and was stating that by eliminating those salaries it would greatly help the employees. I looked up the Wal-Mart CEO salary, divided it out among the 2.3 million employees and it came out to $8.43 per person.

The simple answer is scarcity. Rare things are worth more than plentiful things. Ditch diggers are plentiful. CEOs with financial sense, leadership skills, and political connections are rare. The complete answer is far more nuanced than that, but in general, the principal holds true.

I don't know - I read it that he is saying the problem can't be summed up on a bumper sticker. Instead, it isn't a clear cut issue. When the working man keeps getting less and less (including not getting raises because the company 'can't afford it') but the CEOs keep getting their golden parachutes, get their bonuses even when the government has to bail the company out and can still take advantage of loopholes and not-technically-illegal tax breaks that none of those working stiffs would ever have access to because they will never make enough money to use them then there IS a problem and it isn't 'liberal', 'communist' or 'socialist' to say so. After all, who is really earning the money - as in every dime the company makes, basically - the guy in the head office or the guy who is actually in the field providing the service or on the assembly line producing the goods? I'd say it is a little of both, actually, but the company could probably continue without the CEO and a couple of the other high-level administrators as long as there were still enough people in positions to run the daily business. How long could the company operate without the aforementioned people who are actually providing the service or producing the goods? I'd say not very long. Even if they are replaced by other people it would then be those other people who are doing the work that keeps the company in business. So, then, why are CEOs and so on deemed as being so much more 'valuable' - as reflected by yearly salaries that may equal more than the people who are actually doing the work that drives the company will see in a lifetime? That is a problem. In a perfect world the company, itself, would see this imbalance and take at least some steps to rectify it. However, as long as people - greedy people who are greedy because they are people and who can indulge their greed because of their positions of power - are running those companies that will not happen. So, what is the answer? Government regulations forcing more equity? Possibly - but that would open the door to other problems. It is kind of funny that the whole reason allowing corporations to 'self-regulate' with regards to these issues doesn't work is the same as the reason communism and socialism will never work - because you have to have people in charge and the people in charge will almost always use those positions to make sure that they are 'more equal' than everyone else.

The only people that take wealth they haven't earned are crooks and politicians. That's why many pols are against the death penalty, in case their actions catch up to them. If someone has a business, it's to make money. Or to satisfy a need to provide a service or good. Your narrative sounds like a liberal bumper sticker.

Gray, thanks for Helping out the family with no strings attached, providing an Exceptional experience to help them in a tough time, for taking Responsibility when you don't have to and being Optimistic in selling the guns for fmv. Makes you a HERO in my world. Please post with pics, even if I don't buy, would love to see his collection!

My Wilson tennis racket bag has served me well in the last year.

I've often wondered if someone was to make up official looking bills, with items like "meter box attachment space rental" or "meter reader site access fee", and send them to the utility companies, would they pay them?

No....you just sound old and put out with all the absurdities of the world. In fact, you sound a lot like me!

These guys took money directly from my family and I hope they rot in jail for a long time. I know they have stolen in excess of 100k in merchandise just from 1 location. It cost my family hard earned bonuses because the shrink was so high at the store. They even threatened employees when they were confronted for shoplifting. There has been a case building against them for over a year now and I am glad they have been stopped. http://www.local8now.com/content/news/Knox-County-Sheriff-and-ATF-investigating-a-Pawn-Shop-off-Western-Avenue--420376643.html Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

I remember you posting about it a few years ago. I walked in there ONCE and left immediately because it wasn't a place I would do business with. Glad they are gone, thieves cost us all and there just seems to be way too many thieves in the world today.

Colt RO923 Clone, Transferable Select Fire M16

Oh, the boys at Negotiating Rights Away absolutely operate like that. There's too much money at risk otherwise.

I have come to believe that a certain well known gun rights organization operates kind of like the firefighters we hear about every once in a while who start fires so that they can be 'heroes' by putting them out. If things swing too far in gun owners' direction it might put them out of business so they have to periodically create a problem so that they will have something to lobby against a few years down the road.

Absolutely this bill is a step backwards for a lot of people because it makes carry inside a whole courthouse building a FELONY VS right now the courtroom during court. I'm still curious what gun organization helped write this silly bill because it is three pages of garbage that could have been much better accomplished with a two sentence revision of the no gun sign law changing the violation from a misdemeanor to a deny entry/removal from property.

By the thread title I thought this might be a thread on congress. Oh well, score one for the good guys but I still have a disappoint.

This all started almost a month ago. With no notice, a company listed some Colt USMC M45A1 CQBP for sale on Gunbroker. The seller claimed that these were the actual guns issued to and carried in theater by USMC Special Operations units, including Force Recon. People were very skeptical and thought this had to be a scam. I mean when was the last time you could buy an actual, carried military handgun. A discussion started on the Colt forum and the 1911 forum about these. Some of the guys knew some Colt employees and called them. Colt verified that these were the actual guns sold to and carried by the USMC Special Operations units. The USMC was not happy with the way the coating was holding up and returned a batch to Colt to be replaced. Colt inspected the M45A1s and issued a letter of authenticity with them and x out the USMC to show they had been demilled. Then sold the entire lot to the company selling them on Gunbroker. Now before you could even buy one you had to sign up for the Gunbroker Gold program. It is $50/year and gives you access supposedly to some good deals. These went up for sale Friday afternoon and were sold out by Monday morning. A couple of guys have stated tracking all the sales and compiling a list of the serial numbers. It looks like approx. 475 of the used guns were sold. Word is that there will not be anymore used ones. Then people started hearing rumors of some more guns that were going to be available but these were supposed to be “nib”. Meaning they were bought by the USMC and shipped to their armories but not carried. These went up for sale at a little higher price at the beginning of last week. They sold approx 368 of these with the majority going in the first two hours. They would put a small batch sell them and then raise the price for the next batch. I think they underestimated what the demand for these would be. These have become instant collectibles. Some of the used ones have shown back up on Gunbroker selling for 2.5-3 times what they cost. I was lucky enough to get one of the used ones and one of the “nib” ones. I just got the used one and the “nib” one should arrive next week.

Got my nib one. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Just some pics to show you what I have so you all can give me some advice!