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04-11-2009, 09:34 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Chicago: Beverly, Woodlawn
1,393 posts, read 826,271 times
Reputation: 317
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We are all limited by luck, circumstance, and genetics. Those who apply that small component of free will that we all possess to get the most out of what they are given are the ones who I admire and consider successful. That could equally be a factory worker, a teacher, or a business mogul. I would say though that it includes many fewer people than those who generally consider themselves a great success.
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04-11-2009, 09:45 PM
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We who are about to snark, salute you!
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oak Park, IL
2,858 posts, read 1,981,364 times
Reputation: 907
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ajolotl
We are all limited by luck, circumstance, and genetics. Those who apply that small component of free will that we all possess to get the most out of what they are given are the ones who I admire and consider successful. That could equally be a factory worker, a teacher, or a business mogul. I would say though that it includes many fewer people than those who generally consider themselves a great success.
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Well stated. |
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04-11-2009, 11:43 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Michigan
205 posts, read 76,290 times
Reputation: 98
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I have met plenty of intelligent and hard-working people in my travels to Mexico, who are living just above the poverty line. They are not any dumber or lazier than some yuppie wall-street banker. They made no conscious choice to be born where they were, and anyone who thinks that "luck has nothing to do with success" is completely delusional.
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04-12-2009, 05:23 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: IL
298 posts, read 234,501 times
Reputation: 51
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^ I agree. It's very clear that those born in wealthy families have a higher chance of success. The resources that are available to them (education, networking, lifestyles) help maintain their social status and class. One does not have the choice to what social class they are born in or what country.
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04-13-2009, 03:30 PM
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Sayer of true stuff
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: And I'm moving, yet again ... KC here I come
5,485 posts, read 4,368,210 times
Reputation: 981
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It's not just about wealth either though -- that's my key point. My mom was raising me and my three brothers alone with very little help as a special ed teacher with a masters and 20+ years of experience making less than 35k a year.
The differences between a lower middle class family teetering on the edge like mine and one in the same boat whose parent(s) was/were uneducated and didn't place a high priority on education are immense.
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04-14-2009, 09:33 PM
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asdf jkl;
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Uptown, Chicago
7,129 posts, read 4,779,454 times
Reputation: 1069
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Quote:
Originally Posted by softdev
Tell me the probability that I would be born to the couple in the next flat? The answer is of course 0% as they could not produce my unique genetic makeup.
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Right, cause that would take some strange potion cooked up by a mad super villain and a radioactive spider! |
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