5 ms·
Trust me no matter how smart you play, if you are born in this world at a very vulnerable position, like say a marginal group like lgbtq communities in third wo
by buoyantair 8y ago
Trust me no matter how smart you play, if you are born in this world at a very vulnerable position, like say a marginal group like lgbtq communities in third world or in a war torn area or with disabilities, no matter how smart and hard you work, you are always a few clicks behind those who have the "luck" and everything else on their side.
The world is super unfair place and sometimes even if you work really smart and hard, you won't get the results you worked for.
- WalterBright 8y agoI'm talking about the US and being an able-bodied adult.
- perfmode 8y agoThe US is one of the least egalitarian of developed nations.
- vinceguidry 8y agoDespite a distinct lack of egalatarianism, the US remains the place where someone born at the bottom can still climb the social ladder. Billionaire-hood may escape them, but they're not doomed.
- perfmode 8y agoremains "the" place? the number one determinant of future success in the US is the zip code in which you're born.
- earhart 8y agoCausation isn’t correlation; zip code is easy to measure, but I’d bet it’s not what actually matters.
- mcguire 8y agoZip code is a darn good proxy for race, family wealth, social standing, network prospects....
- WalterBright 8y agoYou can always move to another zip code.
- perfmode 8y agoDo we live in the same america?
- WalterBright 8y agoI don't know where you are, but people come to America by the millions traveling thousands of miles on foot. Then they spread all over the country.
- mcguire 8y agoI'm sure some of them even live in 10021.
- danohuiginn 8y agoPossible, but decreasingly likely. The US is now one of the countries where your success in life is most fully determined by your family background. e.g. it's in the bottom third of the OECD for income mobility, and the absolute worst in the OECD for how much your family background determines your educational success https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobility/ https://www.epi.org/publication/usa-lags-peer-countries-mobi... https://www.oecd.org/centrodemexico/medios/44582910.pdf https://www.oecd.org/centrodemexico/medios/44582910.pdf
- vinceguidry 8y agoThese statistics all measure the wrong things. Let me tell you a story of two families. My step-dad was thrust into a parenting role over his siblings, a sister and a brother at an early age. The brother died early, in a train accident. My step-dad married my mother and they're still together, over 20 years later. His sister is on her second marriage. My aunt's family is constantly teetering on the edge of poverty, having obliterated their family's nest egg over decades of stupid decisions. Our family clawed our way out of low class through pragmatic saving. Stupid decisions are what make the difference between affluence and poverty in the US. You can have all the money in the world and still be broke. The capacity to make stupid decisions largely comes from childhood. It's the emotional makeup of a household that mostly determines what children are like when they get older. If you grow up in America feeling neglected and abused, you're going to go through strings of bad relationships and that's just going to be your life. I call America's brand of poverty "emotional poverty." Food on the table, roof over your head, cable TV and video games for entertainment, all things people in other parts of the world can't reliably have, in the US pretty much come out of the tap like water. Even homeless people here have cell phones. No, what's missing here is emotional warmth. People in the US just can't figure out for some reason how to treat each other well. They eat, but they don't live. If you're lucky enough to avoid emotional poverty, then you can join America's middle class. If not, you'll fritter away all the money you ever make. It's got nothing to do with how much money your family has and everything to do with how they treat each other. No statistic could possibly capture this reality.
- UncleMeat 8y ago
- im3w1l 8y agoMaybe it's because the intelligent families have already risen to the top in the US but not in the other countries.
- perfmode 8y agoI wish more people on this site would refrain from chucking crap arguments against a wall hoping they’ll stick. It’s exhausting to have to constantly point out invalid arguments to people who can’t be bothered to take responsibility for their intellectual pollution. > the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. If we accept this definition, and the United States scores poorly, then it means that either: * not all people are treated as equal * or not all people have equal rights * or not all people have equal opportunities Could you please clarify how your comment is relevant as a response to a comment about egalitarianism? Stated differently: if your comment is true, what is the implication?
- im3w1l 8y agoI meant to reply to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18789008 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18789008 , agree my comment makes little sense when read as a reply to you.
- WalterBright 8y agoWhere else can you go from pauper to billionaire in your twenties?
- perfmode 8y agoone crab escapes the barrel.
- luckydata 8y agoIf after all that happened in the last couple years you still think this country rewards effort and smarts fairly then you live in Lala land, not in the USA.
- justaaron 8y agoyeah, I got the part about the American mythological construct of the Meritocracy being deeply ingrained in your brain.
- WalterBright 8y agoI wake up every morning full of ideas on things to create. Deciding which to do is the problem.