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The rich certainly do engage in their fair share of irresponsible behavior, also - it's just that they're generally better at managing appearances and externali
by kafkaesq 10y ago
The rich certainly do engage in their fair share of irresponsible behavior, also - it's just that they're generally better at managing appearances and externalizing consequences. In fact, quite often that's exactly how they got to be wealthy in the first place.
So while people in the lower economic brackets might engage in overtly self-damaging behaviors like smoking or eating poorly (in disproportionate numbers) -- or simply be too depressed to look for work in an economy that basically has no use for them, or to go to college for an advanced degree in their 40s or 50s -- folks in the bulge brackets will end up doing "responsible" things, like voting for the political class that brought us the invasion of Iraq (including 500k+ killed and the bloodshed we are seeing up to the current day), climate change denial, and the (artificially accelerated) deindustrialization that killed off the middle class jobs those (now) in the lower tiers might have had access to in the first place, a few decades back.
In the world of work, while exceptions exist, I've always seen a strong correlation between position and competence.
In a sense this is almost a truism; one simply has to ask "competent at what?" In many organizations, unfortunately, it isn't technical or domain knowledge, or even interpersonal skills that merits promotion -- but simply the art of "managing up."
- yummyfajitas 10y agoThat's not really true. For example, the poor engage in risky sexual practices - resulting in 7x the unintended pregnancy rate of people with >2x poverty line income. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/unplanned-births-another-outcome-of-economic-inequality/386743/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/unplanne... A quick google search turns up images like this, suggesting poverty is correlated with violent crime: https://i.imgur.com/gAmHXQw.jpg https://i.imgur.com/gAmHXQw.jpg Why not spend a few minutes googling before spreading false stereotypes about minority groups?
- kafkaesq 10y agoWhy not spend a few minutes goggling [sic]? Because the issues at hand are complex and multifaceted -- and in general, one won't find meaningful insight into them by digging for stats to cherry pick for the sake of propping up one's point of view.
- yummyfajitas 10y agotl;dr; If I want to accuse a minority group of killing 500k people, causing droughts, controlling the world , usury and profiteering, or draining blood of christians and using it in religious rituals, that's a claim which requires no evidence at all. But if I dig up statistics suggesting certain more concrete and less conspiratorial claims are true, suddenly the issues are "complex and multifacted" and I've "cherrypicked". Um, ok.