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A lot of it comes down to drive and desire. Opportunities are there through the right education and will to succeed. But people are wired differently. I work with a ton of young adults and it is pretty easy to tell if they are going to be successful or not. Some always want to play the victim like the world is out to get them. They usually end up making bad decisions that tend to snowball. They fall hard unless their parents prop them up (which doesn't address any root problems), but sometimes falling hard enough is what it takes. The hard lesson that a lot of these young adults don't like learning is that the real-world really doesn't care about them. The everyone gets a trophy mentality ends in the bubble of college (and yes, I actually work in academia). The transition from the "difficulties" of college to the real difficulties of the real-world is a harsh reality for many.
Sure some are born with silver spoons and ride the coattails of their parents, but more times than not it comes down to working hard and making prudent life choices in order to get ahead in life. I do feel badly for the students sold a false bill of goods with worthless academic programs out there, who then get riddled with student debt. That is why I try to warn every student I come into contact with about the reality of student loan debt and the importance of picking a field of study that has strong hiring demand.
First of all you are assuming that everyone wants to close the gap between rich and poor. Many people want to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, by enriching themselves at the expense of the poor. Donald Trump is a perfect example, and the billionaire class he represents.
ya couldn't even get off the first page of the thread without blaming Donald Trump for the existence of poor people could ya?
You seem to live inside a fantasy, where everyone is equally intelligent and motivated... the only differentiator being their upbringing.
In this world, there are smart people, dumb people, lazy people and hard working people. Guess which ones get ahead in life?
And there is NO county that has more rags to riches stories than America.
That is not the case, except maybe in absolute numbers since it is the third most populous country (I have no idea about China and India), but per-capita other countries offer superior social mobility...
The middle class in America has never been as well off as it is today. The poor have never been as well off, either.
In fact, rich people have never had as much as they do now.
All this is lost on Democrats who have nothing left in their bag but class warfare. "LOOK! That man has more than you! Git 'em!"
That is not the case, except maybe in absolute numbers since it is the third most populous country (I have no idea about China and India), but per-capita other countries offer superior social mobility...
Wealth Gap as a political tool is just that. a tool. really a weapon used by some groups to bash their political enemies.
it is also a sure fire way to insure the American people don't focus on what matters.
how rich the rich are compared to how poor the poor are is a slight of hand trick to stop people from being engaged on real issues.
the issue is purchasing power year over year. Does that poor family have greater purchasing power this year than they did last year? Does that middle income family have a better standard of living this year than last? THIS is the issue.
One can absolutely make the argument that the bottom and middle are slipping compared to 5 or 10 years ago (although it seems in the last 2 years those things have started to turn).
THIS is the real issue. very few left or right, focus on it.
Social mobility and "rages to riches" are not the same thing.
That's what's great and unique about America. It rewards the truly gifted. In this country, you have to earn you rewards. Mediocrity need not apply.
I do think they are the same thing.
That makes no sense as most people (including most kids of supposedly gifted people) are not "truly gifted", but mediocre, whether overachievers like it or not. And those mediocre people deserve a decent life as well as long as they work and give their best.
People have to earn their rewards here in Europe as well, no difference. But many people on this planet get much bigger rewards than they deserve.
Social mobility and "rages to riches" are not the same thing.
That's what's great and unique about America. It rewards the truly gifted. In this country, you have to earn you rewards. Mediocrity need not apply.
Meanwhile in 2019 the data says you are wrong. More and more its about the wealth of your family then your individual ability. The cost of learning has exploded, making it out of reach to many, and for those who do reach for it, the cost of it becomes a drag on them. The vast majority of the gains in productivity are not going to those doing the work, but to those who have money. And here is the thing. The data says it is getting worse.
There is no way to close a gap that is based on one immutable economic law and one immutable mathematical law.
The immutable economic law is Supply & Demand. Of the vast number of ways to earn money in the world, using "jobs" as the easy synonym, not all jobs have the same supply of capable/willing workers, nor do all jobs have the same demand to be performed. Given vast differences in supply & demand, there will bea very wide range of compensation levels. Two people can both work 40 hours per week, but the 40 hours per week that a Chief Financial Officer works are priced under a wildly different supply/demand graph than the 40 hours a bartender works. Over 10-20 years, the disparity in the per hour pay will manifest in much more stark differences in accumulated wealth, ability to confer advantage to progeny, etc.
The mathematical law is compound interest. The CFO who has $10k of purely disposable income per month will benefit more from compound interest than the bartender who has $500 of purely disposable income per month. The CFO will likely be more adept at maximizing the exponent in that equation as well.
Now let us say that the government punishes the CFO and rewards the bartender such that they make equal amounts per hour. OK, the smarter, more ambitious person (could be either, not saying bartenders aren't smart or ambitious) will work more hours, do more research on better investing, and find ways to make better use of the new standardized labor rate. Over time, compound interest will once again create a growing disparity, even if the government tries to punish intelligence, ambition and good decision making.
The time value of money. Deferred gratification. Assuming geometric risk for exponential payoffs. Etc. Give every single living person the same bag of starting money, and in 5-10 years, you will have rich and poor and a widening gap between them. Some people will let the immutable laws of economics and mathematics work for them, and others will have those same laws working against them...all based on their own choices.
It cannot be stopped, unless you find a way to standardize human nature sch that every human has the exact same personality.
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