I must apologize in advance for this post. It’s not typical of me to directly reply to comments in such a way, however it isn’t the first time. I’ll start this with a quote from the last time I was personally attacked and chose to use my own medium as a response:
It is a pet peeve of mine when people hide behind the internet and don’t own up to their comments for appropriate discussion.
I have no problem with people hiding behind a false name (obviously). But whether you use your name or a false one, you must represent that identity. Case in point, I received the following comment a few posts back but it slipped into my junk folder so it never got published. I found it and published it last night.
The Weakonomist:
I wish i could find more time on my busy agenda to tell you exactly how ignorant-low class-red neck you are. You write things like if you were really that smart and knew how life in business really work. First of all when you mention that the richest man in the world is not an american, but a Mexican to make it worst, that tell me everything i need to know about you, typical uncultural, low class american, you live your life thinking you are the best and the truth is that you really suck!! You think you are over everyone and never open your eyes to realize how full of shit you americans are. YES, the richest man in the world in mexican and not american as you stated….EAT THAT!!!!
Then, to make it even clearer how ignorant you really-shady are, on your comment about $500 millions will make a difference based on the exchange rate…..how stupid you really are, IT DOESN’T MAKE A DIFFERENCE YOU IDIOT!!!!……the numbers (you probably found on the web) are in dollars, it doesn’t really matter if the origin of the person is translated in pesos or any other currency. Last but not least, you write this column like if you were some kind of smart person, you probably go back to your cheap desktop at your trailer house and search for the information is posted on the web so you can posted as if was your very own research. Real information will never be posted on the web stupid. Information you never going to be able to know because you are not on that list.
Stop playing the smart one role and go back to your job at some restaurant.
Get married, get a life, a dog or do something…you just look like stupid….ooopps, let me take that back, for the rest of red-necks that follows your comments, you may be a super heroe, however, you know the truth, and you are a looser, that’s why you NEVER going to be able to make it into Forbes.
And don’t bother to mail back, you are blocked already.
American Looser…the Proud!!!….lol
PS.
I will bet you a million you would never publish my comment, i bet you are so embarrased for being YOU!!!
The author of this comment calls himself Roberto Slim. Please ignore the grammar issues. This was likely written by a non-native speaker and to attack this person on those grounds would be… weak. Plus let’s be honest my grammar isn’t much better.
The first thing I want to address are any misconceptions about what I meant by pointing out Carlos Slim is a Mexican. CARLOS SLIM IS A MEXICAN! In case you aren’t following, Slim is a citizen of Mexico. Citizens of Mexico are called Mexicans in the English speaking world. They call themselves Mexicanos. I did not make this observation in any derogatory or racist manner. My observation was an insult to the US because we’ve always thought of ourselves as champions of Capitalism and titans of industry. While we were sitting fat and pretty our neighbors passed us in the title of richest man in the world. I wanted you readers to know that Americans no longer claim that title. In essence, as Roberto pointed out, I wanted all of you readers and me to “eat that”. After you’re done chewing meet me at the next paragraph.
The only thing really worth discussing on this post is Roberto’s problem with my statement on $500 million only being a matter of exchange rate changes in terms of the difference in wealth between Slim and Bill Gates. Roberto’s point would make perfect sense if Slim’s assets were held in dollars. While he no doubt has some assets in American dollars, most of his wealth is in the Mexican Peso. Forbe’s can calculate Slim’s wealth based on the valuation of his companies, which would be in pesos. This is then converted to the greenback at current exchange rates. If the dollar were to move just a little bit stronger in regards of the peso, Slim’s net worth relative to Gate’s would decline.
Let me illustrate with a simple example. Imagine you and I both have $1. You go to Europe and anticipate spending your dollar so you convert it to a Euro which at the time has a perfect 1:1 exchange rate with the dollar. So you get €1. You don’t spend your euro but while you’re in Europe with your euro Greece has a financial crisis and the dollar strengthens relative to the euro. Now when you return to the states you only get $0.90 for your euro because the exchange rate now favors a strong dollar. A stronger dollar would decrease Slim’s wealth as reported in American dollars.
Finally I want to address personal attacks of any kind on this website. They will not be tolerated. Between various responsibilities (not including this website) I’m currently working about 50 hours a week. I live in an apartment that costs more than most people’s mortgages. While I do own a cheap desktop, I’m not sure how relevant that was to the conversation. I do walk around with me head held high and if you’ve experienced the personal and professional accomplishment I have, you would too. A certain level of arrogance is necessary to write in the style that I do. And yes, I do search the internet for news and research I can post on my blog, but I never take credit for it. It would be quite foolish of me to claim I did the research for a list Forbes publishes. I never made such a claim. I’m also not the only person to note the changes in the Forbes list this year, however everything I did note I learned by studying the list.
And so this brings me to the conclusion of my post. Roberto is a false person, he used a fake email address so he couldn’t have blocked me. Of course that doesn’t do any good since I have like 4 across different domains. The internet calls these people trolls. If this troll wished to engage in a meaningful discussion he would have made attempts to do so. The easiest way being to leave his email address. But this is an open call for Roberto to return and continue his conversation. We’re all friends here and we can all learn from valuable and insightful conversation. Further trolling on this topic will not be permitted for the sake of having a decent conversation. The trolls in the future will be treated with the same respect Roberto is about to get.
Roberto, your name actually is Roberto because when people write angrily, they write stupid. People always think they can hide behind their real first name and a fake last name. I should know, I do it. Second, when you leave a comment you can fake email addresses but few people posses the capacity to fake IP addresses. I traced it to your place of work. It’s a big hospital in a southern state affiliated with a large university. This university has only a few Roberto’s listed, and there’s only one Roberto that doesn’t have a medical degree in the hospital system. Given the lack of grammar and intellectual sophistication necessary to pull off your wonderful comment I can only assume you aren’t packing an MD. This university’s directory gave me an office number, cell number, email address, and stupidly, your home address. Nice apartment (thanks Google Streetview). Doubling back on your writing it’s obvious you’re relatively young as well. I confirmed this when I found your Pandora page and looked at the age of your only listed Pandora friend, who also works for the university.
It’s only at this point did I get bored with my searching. And I hadn’t even started tapping the resources from my prior life where I looked at criminal records and social security numbers all day. The biggest disappointment in all that is that you are in fact just as American as I am. So we’re both loosers…. and proud of it too.
Do not troll Weakonomics. The next troll might get all I learn about them published.
 By The Weakonomist |
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