Reply to Do most of you not realize how out of touch and privileged you are?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with OP. I don't have the same amount of vitriolic resentment towards the wealthy and privileged. I count some of them among my friends. But I do find the way people talk about wealth on these boards and just in general in society disgusting, and I also want us to change the tax code and build an actual social welfare state in this country. Ironically, I think real social welfare would best address many of the things the very privileged claim to care about plus actually reduce class resentment. It is harder to resent wealthy people if you know that you won't be bankrupted by a medical diagnosis or if you are guaranteed some baseline quality of life even if you lose your job, struggle with mental illness, or otherwise fall on hard times. It's so obvious to me that the better we treat those with the least in this country, the better off we would ALL be.

But all these posts about "ACTUALLY I'm self-made" make me laugh. My dad could say the same thing. He came from poverty, put himself through college, started his own business, and found a great deal of success. And he did work hard, that is for sure. He was also very fortunate in a dozen different ways. He was born white and male and able-bodied. He attended public schools his entire life, including an exceptional state university that was heavily subsidized by tax dollars. He was hired into a competitive industry at a time when white men had little competition from anyone else, because women and POC were all but barred from that kind of skilled work (even if they could obtain education in the field, which many were also barred from). And then his professional success occurred during the latter half of the 20th century, when economic conditions favored precisely the kind of investments my parents made. They bought a house in the 80s that was worth 6x what they paid by the late 90s. Subsequent real estate investments paid off equally well. The stock market skyrocketed during this period, and even through bull markets and the tech and subprime crashes, they came out ahead. While my dad did work hard, none of that was the result of his hard work -- it was just timing, privilege, and good fortune.

[b]No one is truly self-made. It is not actually possible to succeed in our culture based 100% on merit. At a minimum, you have to get a little lucky. But most people also benefit from social programs that are specifically designed to help them, like my dad's cheap but high-quality college education, or the job opportunities he obtained in part because his competition was artificially limited by racism and sexism. That's why when wealthy people get mad about the idea of changing things to help those with less, I laugh. We've always helped people! It's just that we've helped a specific kind of person. And even the self-made among you got help, and if you can't see it you are blinded by arrogance.[/b]

You want more people to "make it on their own"? Well then make sure they have access to education, basic healthcare, and a social safety net. A strong welfare state produces a lot of "self-made" success stories, and the reason I know that is because every self-made success I've ever met had precisely the kind of support you now want to pretend is an unfair transfer of wealth.[/quote]

EXCELLENT post. Thank you.[/quote]

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