3 ms·

You make a great point. A lot of this "ticket to the middle class" sounds like delaying the issue of wealth inequality. One of the biggest predictor of financia

You make a great point. A lot of this "ticket to the middle class" sounds like delaying the issue of wealth inequality. One of the biggest predictor of financial success is who you are born to, something you have no control over. When we drive millions more poor people to college, the average value of a college degree will go down. Then we will come up with some new institution that is the "ticket to the middle class," like getting a masters degree. Back in the 1970s, you could get a job with a high school diploma. Now, you have to go to college, work a few unpaid internships, hope you can get an OK job.

stegosaurus 11y ago
'Delaying the issue' is a great way to put it. Social mobility is a distraction. It's not a real solution. It's political language; it assumes the underlying system. A system that cycles people around from being poor to rich based on merit is not a good system, because merit is essentially arbitrary (beyond deliberate antisocial behaviour). I have a talent, my friend does not, I get to live the good life, he gets a lifetime of insecure rental accomodation or homelessness. (True story.) It just does not work. It's based on an outdated idea of work ethic, it assumes people have more control over their faculties than they actually do. I can live with a system that has people competing for sports cars, yachts and jets. Those things don't matter. But having people fight to put a roof over their head is just nonsensical in wealthy countries like the UK/USA. It's a holdover from the Industrial Revolution and the wealthy's desire to force people to labour.
- NTDF9 11y ago
  It's the same old story again. A nobility is born and serfdom becomes the norm. Here's the kicker! Everyone thinks that the current form of capitalism is good. Right from childhood (at least in the US) the American system of capitalism is drilled into children's minds as the best thing there can be (perhaps even God's chosen system of similar bullcrap)
  - mikerichards 11y ago
    Right from childhood (at least in the US) the American system of capitalism is drilled into children's minds as the best thing there can be (perhaps even God's chosen system of similar bullcrap) And then when they get to college, they're indoctrinated into the exact opposite ideology by marxist/socialist professors into your line of thinking.
    - NTDF9 11y ago
      Because we soon realize that real life is not what it was all made up to be in textbooks and propaganda based literature. Personally, I want reality to be presented the way it is instead of constant self-glorification.
- mikerichards 11y ago
  Interesting that you bring up political language. "Income inequality gaps" is political language. Who cares if some guy is rich and some other guy has much, much, much less, but still has a car, small house, enough food, etc..? People with political system motives care about that, and not really helping desperate people. A system that cycles people around from being poor to rich based on merit is not a good system, because merit is essentially arbitrary (beyond deliberate antisocial behaviour). Essentially, absolutely, a luck of the cards of who you know or who you gamed to think you have merit? Pretty cynical with obvious ideological connotations..especially the anti-social behavior part. But having people fight to put a roof over their head is just nonsensical in wealthy countries like the UK/USA. You use the word "fight". Fight would presume that there's some motivation involved. Many people increasingly don't have motivation and are copping out with "disability". It's a holdover from the Industrial Revolution and the wealthy's desire to force people to labour. Wealthy people tend to supply the jobs, but they don't have the guns to force people to do anything. The government has the guns to force people.
  - davidgerard 11y ago
    You forgot to blame cultural Marxism as well.

stegosaurus 11y ago

'Delaying the issue' is a great way to put it. Social mobility is a distraction. It's not a real solution. It's political language; it assumes the underlying system. A system that cycles people around from being poor to rich based on merit is not a good system, because merit is essentially arbitrary (beyond deliberate antisocial behaviour). I have a talent, my friend does not, I get to live the good life, he gets a lifetime of insecure rental accomodation or homelessness. (True story.) It just does not work. It's based on an outdated idea of work ethic, it assumes people have more control over their faculties than they actually do. I can live with a system that has people competing for sports cars, yachts and jets. Those things don't matter. But having people fight to put a roof over their head is just nonsensical in wealthy countries like the UK/USA. It's a holdover from the Industrial Revolution and the wealthy's desire to force people to labour.

NTDF9 11y ago
It's the same old story again. A nobility is born and serfdom becomes the norm. Here's the kicker! Everyone thinks that the current form of capitalism is good. Right from childhood (at least in the US) the American system of capitalism is drilled into children's minds as the best thing there can be (perhaps even God's chosen system of similar bullcrap)
- mikerichards 11y ago
  Right from childhood (at least in the US) the American system of capitalism is drilled into children's minds as the best thing there can be (perhaps even God's chosen system of similar bullcrap) And then when they get to college, they're indoctrinated into the exact opposite ideology by marxist/socialist professors into your line of thinking.
  - NTDF9 11y ago
    Because we soon realize that real life is not what it was all made up to be in textbooks and propaganda based literature. Personally, I want reality to be presented the way it is instead of constant self-glorification.
mikerichards 11y ago
Interesting that you bring up political language. "Income inequality gaps" is political language. Who cares if some guy is rich and some other guy has much, much, much less, but still has a car, small house, enough food, etc..? People with political system motives care about that, and not really helping desperate people. A system that cycles people around from being poor to rich based on merit is not a good system, because merit is essentially arbitrary (beyond deliberate antisocial behaviour). Essentially, absolutely, a luck of the cards of who you know or who you gamed to think you have merit? Pretty cynical with obvious ideological connotations..especially the anti-social behavior part. But having people fight to put a roof over their head is just nonsensical in wealthy countries like the UK/USA. You use the word "fight". Fight would presume that there's some motivation involved. Many people increasingly don't have motivation and are copping out with "disability". It's a holdover from the Industrial Revolution and the wealthy's desire to force people to labour. Wealthy people tend to supply the jobs, but they don't have the guns to force people to do anything. The government has the guns to force people.
- davidgerard 11y ago
  You forgot to blame cultural Marxism as well.