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So what resources are the top students hogging, your analogy is very light on details, esp when the reality is that from a resource standpoint it's the students who are lagging that tend to disproportionately use up more resources. What resources is someone who's rising up the ranks of the middle class heading towards 10% soaking up preventing someone behind them from following? And please, the vast majority of the 10% are absolutely the "working class" as well, talk about being discounted and being made to feel irrelevant.
I guess this is a play on words but you know what was meant by working class - the lower rung of income and wealth.
Resources are housing - gentrification by 10% will clean out a neighborhood of the working class. College - the wealthy buy their way in. Increasing wages for the top and increasing COL, stagnant wages for others, jobs moving to expensive cities, etc.
The important thing about house size is this. We are looking to downsize but find smaller home MORE EXPENSIVE or at least as expensive then our current house.
In our case, let's say we live in a 2600 sf house in rural-burn new England worth 470. A 1500 sq.ft house in the same area of a worse grade of finish (most are duplex condos) costs $349K and then the Condo fees account for the equiv. of another 50K (in terms of the mortgage payment they would cover). So we could go to 1/2 the size for 90% of the cost!
Those starting out today and looking at homes were not the developers and people who built up the current house inventory. We never followed the crowd - we lived for 26 years in the same house and added onto it. It was 1600 sf when we bought it and about 2200 when we sold it (3 kids later!).
When our parents (the Greatest Generation and after) went looking for housing after the War and in the 1950's, there were massive development of new townhomes and Levittowns where they could buy houses tailored to their budgets.
But "Capitalism" today means that a builder is going to skim off only the top buyers....better to build upscale for the people who have the bucks then to cater to the masses of the population.
I think that is one major difference these days....the market follows where the money is. The working folks simply don't exist in enough volume (people with job security, decent incomes but not wealthy) for developers to construct tract homes of 1200 sf like the one we started out in. There are houses of that size but they are almost always in over-55 communities - where the people do actually have the money to buy them.
Without job security and health care security our system simply cannot work. In unregulated capitalism "everyone wants YOUR money" - whether that is the car dealer, the medical system, the phone company, the fancy food vendor or the drug dealer. None of them give one hoot about whether you have that money next year...or whether you borrow the money.
In fact, they'd prefer that you borrow the money since that brings the banker, the bill collector, the repo man, the appraiser and many others into the fold.
I'm surely not pimping for a debt-ridden society but that is what has been taught and sold to most Americans...and, without cheap debt, most people simply couldn't survive. House mortgages should be 7-10%. I'd imagine folks would have to downsize is that were the case.
We were lucky in that we grew up during the hippie/counterculture age and also in an area where wealth itself was not pursued as the be-all end-all. We therefore learned how to live on almost nothing in our formative years. Everything from that point on was a gift.
We were 28 years old with two kids when we got our first credit card. SEARS. So I could buy tools to expand my business. Never had even an ATM card until we were over 50.
But this gets into what is taught by society at large. Generations after ours were STILL told "if you work hard and honestly you will make it in America". This is simply not true any longer.
Strictly anecdotal but I grew up in a middle upper middle class family 50-60 years ago.
1) My aunt and uncle lived with us to help financially.
2) No air conditioning (I lived in a suburb of LA)
3) We rarely ate out. Try waiting in line at Taco Bell after work today.
4) We used cleaned out jam jars as cups.
5) Washed dished by hand until I was about 10. Hung the clothes out on lines
6) As kids we had no where near as many toys as my kids ( and grandkids) or their friends have. (Certainly no expensive electronics)
7) Just based upon my own experiences I find it hard to believe the average person is not better off today.
And this is addressing the current state of medicine and availability to medicine or educational opportunities compared to 50 years ago.
The average house on Long Island is well over $400k, much higher in NYC. Even people with decent jobs have a difficult time buying a home at those prices same for apartments. Back 50 years ago singles could rent an apartment on their own now they need 2 or 3 people. Same in many high cost cities.
The "privileged 10%"? Again, those are people who made wise decisions, picked marketable careers in college, made sacrifices for their job, worked under lots of pressure, maybe earned as much as $100k, saved the max into retirement accounts for 30 years, lived within their means, did not carry card debt, and ended up in the top decile.
The fact that liberals are painting the top 10%, who should actually be admired and emulated, as undeserving of their "privilege" is because if they were to credit them for the actions that led them to the top 10%, they'd have to admit that people who end up in the bottom half may, to varying degrees, have some responsibility for that outcome.
You keep repeating the line that everyone in the top 10% worked hard and made sacrifices as though it's a fact. It's not surprising, given your world view, but it is intellectually dishonest.
Some people worked hard for their net worth. Some didn't. Some had a leg up because their parents paid for college and they inherited a home. Some didn't.
It's fine if you don't care how/why some people got their net worth, but you should stop pretending that it all comes down to merit. Unless, of course, you define "hard work" as picking the right uterus when you're a zygote.
You keep repeating the line that everyone in the top 10% worked hard and made sacrifices as though it's a fact. It's not surprising, given your world view, but it is intellectually dishonest.
Some people worked hard for their net worth. Some didn't. Some had a leg up because their parents paid for college and they inherited a home. Some didn't.
It's fine if you don't care how/why some people got their net worth, but you should stop pretending that it all comes down to merit. Unless, of course, you define "hard work" as picking the right uterus when you're a zygote.
Some people may not have worked hard for their wealth due to inheritance but guess what? That wealth at some point came about as a result of hard work by somebody previously so yes, wealth do come from hard work. Sometimes it comes from luck as well such as winning a lottery or wise investments but that is fair play as well.
It doesn't matter to me. Sure I wish I had a bigger piece of the pie but unfortunately the cards didn't fall that way for me. I'm still living a happy and comfortable life so I can't really complain. A lot of these people worked VERY hard to get to where they are, yet some of them were just plain lucky to be born into a rich family. It would be nice for the top 10% to give away more to the less fortunate but in the end it's their money to do with as they please. Either way we all end up the same eventually. It's just a matter of how you choose to live your life.
Some people may not have worked hard for their wealth due to inheritance but guess what? That wealth at some point came about as a result of hard work by somebody previously so yes, wealth do come from hard work. Sometimes it comes from luck as well such as winning a lottery or wise investments but that is fair play as well.
I don't care how they came about their wealth, I only care about the results and consequences when a few have so much power and influence and many are left behind.
Some people may not have worked hard for their wealth due to inheritance but guess what? That wealth at some point came about as a result of hard work by somebody previously so yes, wealth do come from hard work. Sometimes it comes from luck as well such as winning a lottery or wise investments but that is fair play as well.
Again, it's fine to hold that view. But it's very different from arguing - as Rachel976 does - that everyone in the top 10% deserves respect and admiration because they worked hard and made good choices.
The third-generation college graduate who has no student loan debt, inherited a $1M house in the suburbs, and has a middling job as a lawyer or engineer is probably in the top 10%, but he doesn't deserve a pat on the head for being a captain of industry and a master financial strategist.
The average house on Long Island is well over $400k, much higher in NYC. Even people with decent jobs have a difficult time buying a home at those prices same for apartments. Back 50 years ago singles could rent an apartment on their own now they need 2 or 3 people. Same in many high cost cities.
But you can also buy a home on Long Island for less. Both of my daughters (son-in-laws) own homes on long island that they recently purchased for less than that. We live in Suffolk County.
Closer to NYC is higher but if you are working in NYC your wages (for most jobs) are higher also.
We live in a society where a guy who founded a company with nothing but a great idea only *20-odd years ago* is now the richest dude in the country. He brought established companies to their knees with nothing but a great vision and hard work. That man is Jeff Bezos. He’s also by himself and without need to look elsewhere proof that the system works just fine, thank you very much. That’s a perfect system - one man can rise from very little to ultimate wealth and power with just great ideas, hard work, and the right stuff.
The idea that people “at the bottom” are getting crumbs is ludicrous. They’re being paid what they’re worth - based on what they generate - in a free market economy. Many are overpaid, if you’ve stopped by a fast food joint lately.
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