Sunday, November 21, 2010
Wealth in America
We talked about the inequality of wealth in America. A small percentage of Americans have the majority of wealth. Some would say his isn't fair or equal, but life isn't fair. America promises equal opportunity, not complete equality. The Soviet Union promised complete equality, so everyone was poor. do we really want that? Much of the wealth worked their way to their position, sure many were born into but their parents worked hard to get there and benefit their family. Many will say that there isn't really equal opportunity in America, I say that's a lie and an excuse to fail. It's easier to dwell in your own self pity than to work yourself out of your situation. An example from my life is my dad. He grew up in Nevada, Iowa. There was about 1000 people living there and no one went to college. My dad worked 2-3 jobs at a time starting at the age of 13 till the end of high school but he couldn't pay for college by himself. So he joined ROTC Navy and the Navy paid for his college. He got his Bachelor's Degree and served our country, then came back and got his Master's. He worked hard and made sacrifices to improve his situation. It's not impossible to be well off in America, but it does take some actual work.
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I get what you are saying and no doubt your dad worked hard and earned his way up. But I would say he is a success story and that makes him more unique than typical. The point of the wealth distribution is that although we believe in the value that everyone is equal, the reality is that those with extreme wealth do not have to work so hard to be successful and when they do mess up, the consequences are less dire. Imagine if your dad was born to the Hilton family or Johnson and Johnson or Rockefellar or Kennedy - would he have had to work so hard? Probably not. And then take the other extreme - such as Tammy from the video we watched. She works hard but she is probably not getting into a ROTC program and she is probably not getting a college degree.
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