3 ms·
Why is it surprising? There’s a combination of blindness, and inflated sense of self worth. America romanticizes the “self-made man”, and so any help is discoun
by jonathankoren 7y ago
Why is it surprising? There’s a combination of blindness, and inflated sense of self worth. America romanticizes the “self-made man”, and so any help is discounted. (Famously, a $1M family loan in 1975 (4.8M in 2019 dollars) was described as “small”.) Not coincidentally, these is a strong correlation with ascribing their success to a meritocracy, even though luck has been repeatedly shown more influential factor in success.[0]
[0] https://www.fastcompany.com/40510522/meritocracy-doesnt-exist-and-believing-it-does-is-bad-for-you https://www.fastcompany.com/40510522/meritocracy-doesnt-exis...
- huffmsa 7y agoIt's romanticized because the majority of Americans had someone in their family throw caution to the wind and get on a boat and cross the Atlantic with zero knowledge of what was going to happen.
- misterbishop 7y agomany slaves.
- village-idiot 7y agoThat seems pretty silly to me. My family has such stories, from the 1860s. Why should I lionize the self-madeness of someone from almost 200 years ago and pretend that the same social factors are at work?
- coldtea 7y agoWell, that was at a time when those places where at war, famine, turmoil, and the US economy was rising. Easy to "throw caution to the wind" when all you have is some small plot of land struck by drought.
- huffmsa 7y agoEven easier when you know you can go back to whatever job you're currently doing if your entrepreneurial idea doesn't pan out.
- spaced-out 7y agoAnd you'd think Americans would think fondly of people who try and do that today, but instead we separate them from their kids then throw them all in internment camps.