Anonymous wrote:I don't know a single self-made successful person who has achieved success through "luck." They gave carefully planned, taken risks and positioned themselves to be in the right place at the right time. "Luck" was never part of the equation.

See...I would say that taking a risk and it paying off IS luck - even if the risk is a calculated one.

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Anonymous wrote:I am white and I got nothing from my parents and grew up with a single (divorced) mom. The only reason I have a nice lifestyle now, despite going to college (loans), is because I married well.

Ummm...you realize that the bolded part undercuts the first part? You may have not had inter-generational wealth but you married someone who did. And that relative wealth will pass to your children. That's one of the points of the article.

Right, however the person I married is a 1st generation immigrant that came from nothing. He isn't black but he still was highly disadvantaged and did well for himself.

I am a 1%er who is the first generation to go to college (lower class) married to a first generation to go to college (lower middle class). We benefited from no inter generational wealth transfer. In fact, the wealth transfer has been reverse.

And you will end up transferring a ton of wealth to your kids.

.

So? I have earned it.

But they didn't, and that is the issue of intergenerational wealth.

There is no "issue" of generational wealth except resentment and envy. I came from nothing and made something of myself. Others can do the same and their children can benefit. Envy and resentment...

No envy here. I am doing well for myself too. But as a minority who made it, I do appreciate certain things about my journey that others did not endure.

But consider this - many AAs and Hispanics work hard and try to make something of themselves. The advantages you had that are the essences of White privilege are that 1) You worked hard and you did not have to worry that the color of your skin would give someone cause to undermine your hard work (2 you could be reasonably confident that with hard work and a few breaks, you would be successful and 3) you did not have to assimilate culturally to be succesful.

Seriously, I applaud you for your hard work and success. But it is naive to think that everyone has the same opportunity for success that you did.

. You have no freaking idea what I had to overcome. Coming where I started I had NO reasonable idea much less confidence that I could be successful. Just stop with the stereotyping.

Don't tell me to stop stereotyping until you tell the people earlier in the thread to stop doing it. It does not feel good to be on the wrong end of stereotyping does it? To have someone ignore your personal struggle and acheivements and have you lumped in with everyone else? Kinda sucks, doesn't it?

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Anonymous wrote:Actually, most of the 1%ers I know earned their money. Only a couple inherited or are set to inherit.

All depends on how you define earned. For most earned means being paid for you time. You work 8 hours you get paid for 8 hours. The only way you can become a 1%er is to be getting a whole bunch of money when your doing nothing.

Let's take a book for example. You decide to write a book and you spend 8 hours a day for 3 months writing the book. That's roughly 720 hours of work. The publisher takes the book, markets it, and it sells 1 million copies. You get a royalty check for 5 million dollars. So you basically "earned" $5,000,000 / 720 = $6,944.44 an hour to write the book. Now if you hired someone to work for you would you pay then $6,944.44 an hour?

Or another more drastic example, the lottery. You take 15 minutes of your time and go by a lottery ticket with numbers you laboriously pick. That night they draw the number and you win $250,000,000. Did you "earn" that money?

Getting money is one thing, earning it is another. There not the same thing.

+1. IMO, passive investing or"letting your money work for you" is not earning your money. There is NOTHING wrong with building wealth that way (I did), but lets not act like we are pouring driveways or framing houses.

Anonymous wrote:Lawyers and doctors are most definitely among the 1% from their "efforts"--not all but certainly plenty that I know--highly specialized, highly educated, working machines.

With regard to the fictional author, those royalties are a product of his or her labor.

Lawyers and Dr.s tend to have a lot of student debt, too, which would bring down their net worth, which is what we are talking about.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know a single self-made successful person who has achieved success through "luck." They gave carefully planned, taken risks and positioned themselves to be in the right place at the right time. "Luck" was never part of the equation.

Sure, and if the risks hadn't panned out it very well could have been the result of bad luck. I agree that you have to put yourself in the correct position, but luck definitely plays a part.

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Anonymous wrote:Lawyers and doctors are most definitely among the 1% from their "efforts"--not all but certainly plenty that I know--highly specialized, highly educated, working machines.

That and the ability to pay for college and graduate school.

Lawyers are the problem.

I don't know a single self-made successful person who has achieved success through "luck." They gave carefully planned, taken risks and positioned themselves to be in the right place at the right time. "Luck" was never part of the equation.

Anonymous wrote:Lawyers and doctors are most definitely among the 1% from their "efforts"--not all but certainly plenty that I know--highly specialized, highly educated, working machines.

That and the ability to pay for college and graduate school.

Married well can also mean marrying someone with the drive to succeed, or marrying someone kind and loving. Your narrow mindedness is showing, as is your petty jealousy.

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Anonymous wrote:I am white and I got nothing from my parents and grew up with a single (divorced) mom. The only reason I have a nice lifestyle now, despite going to college (loans), is because I married well.

Ummm...you realize that the bolded part undercuts the first part? You may have not had inter-generational wealth but you married someone who did. And that relative wealth will pass to your children. That's one of the points of the article.

Right, however the person I married is a 1st generation immigrant that came from nothing. He isn't black but he still was highly disadvantaged and did well for himself.

What did you mean by "married well"? This phrase has traditionally been used for married into wealth.

Lawyers and doctors are most definitely among the 1% from their "efforts"--not all but certainly plenty that I know--highly specialized, highly educated, working machines.

With regard to the fictional author, those royalties are a product of his or her labor.

A willingness to work , luck, and a society that has condones a disgusting and unconscionable increase in executive pay and severence pay.

A lot of those lottery winners seem to be elderly blue collar workers. I'd say that theyve earned it

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Anonymous wrote:Actually, most of the 1%ers I know earned their money. Only a couple inherited or are set to inherit.

All depends on how you define earned. For most earned means being paid for you time. You work 8 hours you get paid for 8 hours. The only way you can become a 1%er is to be getting a whole bunch of money when your doing nothing.

Let's take a book for example. You decide to write a book and you spend 8 hours a day for 3 months writing the book. That's roughly 720 hours of work. The publisher takes the book, markets it, and it sells 1 million copies. You get a royalty check for 5 million dollars. So you basically "earned" $5,000,000 / 720 = $6,944.44 an hour to write the book. Now if you hired someone to work for you would you pay then $6,944.44 an hour?

Or another more drastic example, the lottery. You take 15 minutes of your time and go by a lottery ticket with numbers you laboriously pick. That night they draw the number and you win $250,000,000. Did you "earn" that money?

Getting money is one thing, earning it is another. There not the same thing.

What a skewed view of "earning" you have.

According to Webster
earn = to receive as return for effort and especially for work done or services rendered

. So the effort the author puts is indeed earnings... Just because he or she didn't Ypsilanti away at a minimum wage job doesn't mean the proceeds of the sale aren't earnings. The same applies to the software developer, the doctor, the attorney, e scientist, etc. just because they aren't low paying jobs doesn't mean that the product of their labor does not qualify as earnings.

The royalty payments the author receives is not payment for his effort, they are payments for the sale of the book. If the author was only being paid for his writing skills, i.e. his effort, what do you think he would of been paid? $50 an hour? $75? Perhaps $100?

A software developer, doctor, attorney, scientist, etc. will never break into the top 1% from their salaries (effort) alone. Take Mark Zuckerberg for example, he's a top 1%er and earns a $1 annual salary. Yes, only $1. Does he deserve his billions, sure he does. Did he somehow work harder or longer than some other software developer earning $120k a year? How can he be worth billions on a $1 salary and working no harder or longer than a typical software developer? There must be non-salary income coming from somewhere else right?

The lottery winner who wins $250 million for 15 minutes work. Hardly no one would say they earned it.

Let's be honest, to get into the top 1% takes more than earned income. It mostly takes a willingness for risk and lots of luck.

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Anonymous wrote:I am white and I got nothing from my parents and grew up with a single (divorced) mom. The only reason I have a nice lifestyle now, despite going to college (loans), is because I married well.

Ummm...you realize that the bolded part undercuts the first part? You may have not had inter-generational wealth but you married someone who did. And that relative wealth will pass to your children. That's one of the points of the article.

Right, however the person I married is a 1st generation immigrant that came from nothing. He isn't black but he still was highly disadvantaged and did well for himself.

I am a 1%er who is the first generation to go to college (lower class) married to a first generation to go to college (lower middle class). We benefited from no inter generational wealth transfer. In fact, the wealth transfer has been reverse.

And you will end up transferring a ton of wealth to your kids.

.

So? I have earned it.

But they didn't, and that is the issue of intergenerational wealth.

There is no "issue" of generational wealth except resentment and envy. I came from nothing and made something of myself. Others can do the same and their children can benefit. Envy and resentment...

No envy here. I am doing well for myself too. But as a minority who made it, I do appreciate certain things about my journey that others did not endure.

But consider this - many AAs and Hispanics work hard and try to make something of themselves. The advantages you had that are the essences of White privilege are that 1) You worked hard and you did not have to worry that the color of your skin would give someone cause to undermine your hard work (2 you could be reasonably confident that with hard work and a few breaks, you would be successful and 3) you did not have to assimilate culturally to be succesful.

Seriously, I applaud you for your hard work and success. But it is naive to think that everyone has the same opportunity for success that you did.

. You have no freaking idea what I had to overcome. Coming where I started I had NO reasonable idea much less confidence that I could be successful. Just stop with the stereotyping.

If what you just said is really true, then you certainly understand how so many people would have no reasonable idea that THEY could be successful. And 95% of the time both you and they will be right. And once in a while someone like you will make it.

. Attitudes like yours are infuriating and perpetuate the myth that one cannot change one's life circumstance. Not only is what I said true, but I have a number of friends whose lives have taken similar paths and (Gaso!) they are even minorities.

I didn't say that one could not change one's life. But the idea that anyone can become a 1%er if they just work hard is not true. You said it yourself. You had no reasonable idea that you would be successful. By your own estimation at the time, it was improbable.

Hard work is usually necessary but not sufficient. Lots of people work very hard but don't have the innate capability to be extremely successful. Lots of slackers with innate talent that will never be used.