On a related note, there are also studies showing that luck as opposed to skill is the dominant factor in success. A person who has average skills but enjoys having good a good start in life, who has access to good connections, education, and so on, will have a far better chance of becoming successful than an exceptional person who doesn’t get these benefits.
I’ve recently experienced this myself and it’s insane. I grew up in what appears (at least to me) to be an average middle class life. I lived at home during college and commuted to my local community college, then state school to get my 4 year degree in CS
I grinded my ass off during college to get a good internship which led me to getting a $220k a year job at AWS with 0 connections. That one position was my lucky break that sent me into a world of connections I couldn’t even fathom.
As a result of that job I moved to the bay area and made a bunch of friends both in and out of my field. Through that I’ve met VCs, mentors, recruiters, and many others who I could get a job interview through just by asking. I’ve also gotten a few other people jobs through direct referral. Don’t get me wrong they still have to interview and perform well, but getting short listed for interviews is incredibly powerful.
I recently got a new job, full remote, amazing benefits, and higher salary than AWS (slightly less total comp) through a friend of a friend. Despite the tech market being awful I went from asking for a referral to signing an offer in 6 weeks with only 1.5 YOE. I’m no one special either, I just knew the right people to get interviews and then studied my ass off to pass them. Most people capable of passing wouldn’t even get an interview because it’s a numbers game.
It’s crazy to think about isn’t it. So much of your career ends up being just dumb luck of meeting the right people, and ending up in jobs where you make useful connections. And I have friends who are hands down smarter than I am, who ended up with crappier jobs because their dumb luck took a slightly different turn. I’ve come to realize that this whole notion of meritocracy under capitalism is pure nonsense. You do have to put in work into your career, but getting the right opportunity is what really matters.
There are plenty of people who are smart and ambitious, but only a few ever end making it. And then it’s easy to look back and to start attributing your success to having worked hard, and being smart, and so on. The reality is that you just won the lottery.
I think it’s both. I’ve always subscribed to the idea that you create your own luck in a way. As in, working hard will allow you more “lucky” opportunities, but it doesn’t guarantee them. There are certainly people who will never get lucky despite working hard, and there are those who will fall upwards despite doing the bare minimum. As long as you make a comfortable living I wouldn’t stress over it, and try to help those who are less lucky around you when you can.
I look at this as a systemic problem, sort of like a rigged game. The dice is loaded in favor of people who have more opportunities, and statistically they’re the ones who end up being successful. I think we should strive to have social systems that afford good opportunities to everyone, so you don’t have to win the birth lottery to have a good chance at success. I feel that I’m one of the lucky people who make a comfortable living, but I don’t think it should be a privilege.
“I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops”.
“If you don’t want to be poor, why weren’t you just born into a rich family? I have no respect for your bad choices pre life!”
Is there any doubt about that? This is no news, even for people with a big house, cars …
a father with money
uhh, it’s HER TURN (to give birth to a failson who fails perpetually upward)
You have the same income image for both links.
The median cost for a one bedroom apartment in the US is NOT $5,000 a month. First result on my search has $3190 for New York, but most of the listed cities are around $1,500 a month which is $18,000 a year.
“I built this company by myself, from the ground up, my own blood sweat and tears, no help from anyone, and a $20 million dollar gift from my daddy”
If only any of them even got a million.
I mean $200000 vs $20000000, not a big difference.
Every thread you are in, it’s a guarantee you’ll simp for Republicans and/or rich assholes.
I’m so very, VERY sorry for pointing out that none of these guys weren’t given anywhere as close as commented on. I guess pointing out facts is bad these days. Wild.
You might even be right, but it’s clear you’ve got an agenda, and that’s what I’m commenting on. It’s very obvious
Ahhh, an agenda of fact based reality. I deeply apologize for pointing out facts.
The agenda of if a rich person does it, it’s ok and that’s all that matters
Y’all just like to make shit up when it suits you and screech when it doesn’t 🤷♂️🤣
I’ll make sure to put “WARNING, THE FOLLOWING IS A JOKE” next time, for those of us that have a hard time telling the difference.
It’s clearly not. Have you seen the hate this has generated? It’s an entire cult 🤣.
Generated by you, taking offense to me “over exaggerating” and not being “based in reality”, taking a joke way too seriously. Chill out bro.
Yes. People don’t like being called out for making shit up. It’s okay when your do it, but if the right does it it gets posted to the sub 🤦♂️.
Lololol these guys are all from upper middle class. And on the low side of that. Y’all just want to be pissed.
Upper middle class middle class with families and connections who had spare money to invest and just far enough along that they had the kids were raised with the drive to gather even more wealth. If they had been more wealthy they wouldn’t have the drive, if they were less well off then they wouldn’t have the advantages to make that drive happen.
“With money” doesn’t mean all the money. It means plenty of money. Gates loves to tell the story about how he started his company in his father’s garage. That was a three car garage because they could afford a large house with a lot of extra space Bill could use for free while starting his business.
The parents could afford to send them to prestigious schools where they made connections.
The parents had money. Recognizing this is not jealousy, it is a reason to acknowledge that massive wealth does not come from effort alone.
you guys have skewed views of middle class. What do you consider upper class?
Since there is a ton of variation on cost of living and other factors by region, I just go by rough percentages because anything more is too complex to generalize. So the following is my view, which can be applied nationally or within a state/region as the outcome is basically the same. Keep in mind that after basic expenses are paid and someone can afford to invest their long term investments and other wealth are generally not included in their income despite their actual wealth continuing to increase allowing them access to loans and other monetary options that the middle class just doesn’t have.
So how I see it by income:
Upper class as top 10%
Upper middle class would be 75%-90%
Middle class 25%-75%Sure, people in California won’t have the same monthly costs at 100k+ income to someone in the midwest, but the person in California who owns a home is building up a lot more wealth and options for loans/mortgages in higher amounts than someone in the midwest with a cheaper home. Renting is a different thing, but upper middle class and above have the option to buy and increase their wealth and puts them even further above middle class and below that aren’t able to do the same or aren’t able to save on top of the house payments.
What do you consider upper class?
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Ok so looking at real numbers I don’t think your sentiment is correct. I’ll take other numbers too but I am seeing the median income is around 70k annual.
But then I am seeing it costs around 61k just to rent a one bedroom apartment.
Are you seriously suggesting that about half of the “middle class” could not even afford to rent a one bedroom apartment?
(I got my numbers just from quick google searches fyi I tried to post pics but it did the endless scrolling bug)
sigh story is so bloated
tl;dr anyone?
TLDR; ALL billionaires are only billionaires because their dad’s made them so. Here is a list of 3 billionaires to prove it. One of them is adopted but it still counts.
Money follows money.
