Makes me so annoyed people say "you're lucky" like nah, I worked my ass off
But so far, you probably either never experienced poverty or was lucky enough to get out. Lots of folks work their ass off and never are able to lift themselves out of poverty.
Chances are, you didn't get really sick in school and had to hold off on your studies. And you didn't lose a job because you wound up with an autoimmune disorder and weren't at the job long enough to qualify for FMLA, which was unpaid anyway. If you went to higher education, especially if you went for a Masters or higher - or had any degree that requires unpaid internship - you had someone to help support you during that time - parents, partner, etc.
And the list goes on. So many things in everyone's life are the result of just getting lucky and people have no control over this. Sometimes it is just luck avoiding things and sometimes it is just that some folks have a much better starting hand than other folks. Not everyone can get the good cards because the really good cards need to be unlocked with good cards. They still work their asses off, though.
I tried and it took years but I made it, that's my point, wasn't faith... didn't just happen, I guided it
Plenty of people work hard, smart, etc. and get nowhere or die. Pretending otherwise is silly.
"I worked really hard on this, and then I got sick and everything fell through" "Really sorry you had some bad luck, I know you worked hard on that"
Simply bringing up - in a public forum - that luck and hard work goes hand in hand isn't dismissive. It is just pointing out how things simply are. No one is dismissing that folks work hard on things. Working hard simply isn't enough for success.
What you should praise is the _input_. Their hard work. The effort. I believe there are studies reinforcing this difference being crucial wrt education of children but I don't have any on hand. :)
Which is a more important factor of AB, A or B? You can't disentangle them. And since you have control of A, and no control of B, people should be praised for and incentivized to increase A.
Lord, grant me the courage to increase A, the serenity to accept B, and the wisdom to tell them apart.
I think everyone (with the free time) should invest in learning Poker or card games. Lessons there can be applied elsewhere while still remaining intuitive and easy to understand!
Everybody already knows that. Determination, skill/natural ability, and luck are essentially how we get anything done in our lives. Usually a combination of all three, and you’re focusing on the one that an individual has no control over. It’s unproductive.
There are entire cultures out there that acknowledge and respect that where they are today is built, partly, on random chance. Saying that you are where you are entirely on your own individual merits is just /rude/ to many. Just because yours likes to pretend otherwise doesn't make that pretense universal.
Why not? A reasonable person can easily see that things are part luck and part work and will admit it outright. Sometimes 70% work, sometimes 70% luck.
They're never going to be financially stable in the way I am, though. I work hard too, but I also have luck.
You can be rich, lazy, and lucky. You can be rich, hardworking, and lucky.
But you can't be rich, hardworking, and unlucky. Luck is necessary ingredient.
I watch people work so hard and still struggle. And it’s upsetting. I think everyone should have it as easy as I have, or easier. There is so much wealth in this world. But it doesn’t go to the hard workers. It goes to the lucky. Amongst the lucky there will be some perception of fairness and equity, but that is only because they can’t see the people far above and below them.
Promise yourself that you will follow through when the time comes. That is how I assuage my guilt. If the time is ever right to create meaningful change for the betterment of all, I will be there on the front lines. But the world has to wake up a little first. Until then I will just keep waiting.
We absolutely do
> maybe one day there will be a social movement to make the world a fairer place
These movements have existed for hundreds of years
> When that day comes lean into the movement
That day is in the past
> Promise yourself that you will follow through when the time comes. That is how I assuage my guilt. If the time is ever right to create meaningful change for the betterment of all, I will be there on the front lines.
I don't want to be rude because you seem to want to help, but assuaging your guilt by hoping some day in the future you will contribute to something positive seems like a plan for inaction. This seems like a great way to ensure that things don't change. There are many movements to change the world for the better. I don't want to get in to specific ideologies but I changed my career so that I am always working in open source, trying to undercut for-profit companies that would patent ideas and charge high prices by offering open source alternatives that people all over the world can build for free (I am working on an open source farming robot project).
If you want to know more about how I view this topic more broadly, you can watch one of my videos on the subject.
This youtube news channel below is specifically dedicated to covering news of successes like these. You often don't hear about this stuff, but do not let yourself be convinced it is not happening. There is so much that can be done. So many people fighting every day and gaining wins. There isn't much we can do to affect national or global politics, but that doesn't mean we are powerless to make a positive change in some people's lives. Don't let yourself be convinced by those in power that you have none. That is what they want you to think so you won't try to fight back.
This just seems overly reductive in the opposite direction. Do you not know any housekeepers or garbage collectors? It feels like you're going so far out of your way to try to make the person you're responding to feel sorry for them that you're being cruel and dismissive.
My mother-in-law was an immigrant housekeeper who over the course of her life eventually became a well paid live-in private chef, for example.
And even if someone doesn't become rich they can often provide for subsequent generations. My Dad was able to become a doctor because his immigrant construction laborer father was able to give him enough stability to do well in school.
This thread is about having compassion, and certainly the top level comment lacks it. But your comment also kind of lacks it? I know it tries to, but it feels very condescending to me, and takes the agency from vast swathes of people. I can't imagine hanging out among "housekeepers and garbage collectors" and not seeing that they're just people, too, and some are among a vibrant community and have dreams and aspirations for themselves or their children, and hearing bragging of all the success stories of those who have become financially stable the way you are.
I know my housekeeper very well. We're friends, we've played online games together, and he's cleaned for me for almost 10 years. I help him with his side hustles whenever I can.
> It feels like you're going so far out of your way to try to make the person you're responding to feel sorry for them that you're being cruel and dismissive.
This is a bizarre reading of my comment. I was trying to think of the hardest-working people I know. I didn't choose them because they are people to pity.
Upward mobility in the US is at its lowest in several generations[1]. That's my whole point.
> My mother-in-law was an immigrant housekeeper who over the course of her life eventually became a well paid live-in private chef, for example.
Great! Doesn't change my point.
I don't work as hard as a garbage collector, and I earn 6x what a garbage collector in my city makes by working as a privileged software developer.
These people may be financially stable and have good lives, but they won't have money thrown at them the way I (and a lot of software developers) have.
> I know it tries to, but it feels very condescending to me, and takes the agency from vast swathes of people.
Yes, that is my whole point. We live in a society that takes away people's agency. They can work tirelessly and still not have the "pedigree" that a lot of companies look for. A lot of our society is determined by which family you're lucky enough to be born in, and that is what has taken people's agency away.
As for the rest of it, I can't control how you interpret my words. I feel condescending toward people who are lucky like me and don't realize it. I don't feel condescending toward people who work hard and take care of their families.
1. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/social-...
How many people have worked harded than you and end up in a menial job, defeated and burned out? I bet they are a lot. And how many just inherited wealth and never lifted a finger in their life? I know they are a lot.