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Comment by FussyZeus | Hacker News Reader

This argument holds less and less water each year, what with Apple, Facebook and Google and company all sitting on an amount of wealth so insane that even they barely know how much money they actually have and with the middle class nearing extinction.

At some point the corporate overlords are going to have to acknowledge that in order to maintain their positions, they're going to have to let some of the other people have some of the money, if for no other reason than so they can spend it. I don't hate the rich at all, I think they're acting rationally in a poorly designed system that incentivizes them to hoard more and more while the rest of us fight for the scraps, but that system can only go on so long.

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I'd love to have a debate with you offline about this. I think I've already gotten a little more political than appropriate for this community, and if not my response to this most certainly would be.

I will only say that if you are tired of fighting for scraps - change your perspective, work your ass off, and earn yourself a bigger slice of pie. This is the United States of America. Everything is possible.

I won't get into the politics further, but can I say it's amazing to me that Internet Economists always assume that the people complaining about the lack of economic opportunity in the U.S. both A) are not working hard enough to deserve it and B) are unhappy with their current economic state.

For the record, I'm perfectly happy. I'd obviously enjoy a raise, but I don't need it, I have food on my table and an excellent lifestyle. The fact that I can appreciate that while saying, hey, maybe we should spread the prosperity around a little are not mutually exclusive and should be doable by any human being with empathy.

Preposterous. It might work for you, and it might even work for FuzzyZeus, but it's quite clearly impossible for everyone to "earn" themselves a bigger piece of pie.

I have worked pretty damn hard to get where I am, but it occurs to me more and more that there's no good explanation that in a country as wealthy as ours that you need to work yourself to the bone just to get a moderately good lifestyle. And then we brag about the fact that we worked 2 jobs through college or whatever like it's some kind of badge of honor to be a voluntary slave for a few years.

I'm not saying a Cadillac in every driveway, and there should definitely be reward for those willing to put in the extra hours and what have you, but you shouldn't need to put in extra hours just to claw your way to what would be considered a basic American lifestyle. I think that's silly.

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