22 ms·
You could have equal chance to end up in the top quintile when measuring income, and still do things to help your kids succeed. It would just mean that those th
by literallycancer 10y ago
You could have equal chance to end up in the top quintile when measuring income, and still do things to help your kids succeed. It would just mean that those things wouldn't depend on the family income.
E.g. people whose family is more educated than the average would have better chances to end up in the top quintile by income, regardless of how much money they make.
- anovikov 10y agoWhat's the point of being more educated if you don't make more? Fancy way to waste time?
- literallycancer 10y agoIntellectual satisfaction. But you can ask that question about anything, really. What's the point of being stronger, if you can't just go and take other people's stuff? What's the point of being faster, when the first place prize is the same as the last?
- EliRivers 10y agoThat's what it is for me. I spent five and a half years slowly doing a masters in mathematics in my own time, evenings and weekends, for the pure thrill of it. Now I'm learning Japanese just for the sake of being able to read, write and speak Japanese. Wnet all the way to Tokyo in December for five mornings' worth of Japanese lessons (and some tourism stuff around it); just for the pleasure of learning something of interest. As you say, a fancy way to waste time. I understand some people do other things to the same ends; movies, television, music, socialising, drugs and alcohol, dancing, art, reading, writing, building things, making things, running, climbing, swimming, on and on and on. Oh, the range of things we humans do as fancy wastes of time.