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Rule #0: Be born into a privileged family. Your parents will raise you in a wealthier suburb where the schools are good and you network with other similarly pri
by ttul 3y ago
Rule #0: Be born into a privileged family. Your parents will raise you in a wealthier suburb where the schools are good and you network with other similarly privileged kids. The crime rate is low, so you’re less likely to end up injured or killed by violence. Air pollution is also likely lower, so less odds of death by asthma.
Privilege gets you into college, where you study with other even more privileged kids, obtaining a designation that further cements your advantages. From this basis of privilege, your privileged ancestors will perhaps gift you some capital with which you can start your portfolio or purchase a home.
You now begin you career and can start following the other steps to maintain your advantage.
* edited to replace “white male” with “privileged family,” which is a bit fairer and less controversial.
- Racing0461 3y agoHow are white males a privileged class? The top 1% sure, but the average white male? If anything, white females are a privileged class.
- tasty_freeze 3y agoBeing privileged doesn't mean one's life has no hardship. There are plenty of poor, white men, and Oprah Winfrey is a billionaire. The way to think about it is take one of those poor white men and imagine he is black while the other things (wealth, schooling, location, etc) remain constant. While anything might happen, statistically that person's outcome would be worse as a black poor man than as a white poor man.
- Racing0461 3y agoYeah but that isn't because of race. Replacing the race doesn't work with asian men nor black men that come from africa as 0th gen/1st gen immigrants. This is uniquely an african american problem suggesting alternative reasoning (culture, education/values etc).
- threadweaver34 3y agoI'm a solid white male engineer at a FAANG. If I were a woman, the company would bend over backwards to make sure I advance. 80th percentile as a male, they're happy to keep me, but investing in me isn't a priority.
- maskil 3y agoSo you're advice is basically to give up?
- ttul 3y agoNot at all. But I think it’s worth pointing out that it’s a privilege to even have wealth to manage in the first place. It is commonplace to disregard that privilege in these sorts of discussions on the topic of wealth.
- k2xl 3y agoThis is an awful, overly-simplistic, unproductive, and arguably inaccurate mindset to have in life.
- ttul 3y agoTo each their own, but I just dropped my daughter off at university, and nearly every kid is white. I felt it may be of some interest here on HN to let people know there is a step 0 that most humans will never be able to access. I don’t mean to imply that successful people didn’t work hard. I have worked hard. But had I grown up as some of my primary school colleagues did - on the literal wrong side of the tracks - I likely would not have had nearly the same success in life and would not have a portfolio to worry about in the first place. At best, I’d be hopeful for a union job with a pension.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]