9 said:
My life has just begun, so no, I haven't "risen among the social classes" yet. My family is what you would probably consider to be rich, so there is not a lot of rising to do.
Your situation may be a case of bad luck. But, I believe the majority of that 40% you claim is poor are quite simply lazy or unwilling to take the risks necessary to reap the rewards of the capitalist system. If my ancestors had played it safe and just stayed in Austria, I would probably be a poor kid in Austria right now. It was a risky but profitable adventure for them to come here from Austria.
Sounds like something someone from a privileged background would say. Most of the time, most people can't invest and live pay check to pay check. If you ever started out poor, you would know this. Ever hear of the old saying, "It takes money to make money"?. That is the truth and if you have no spare income, then how are you going to invest or try something "risky" as you put it? You assume too much. Calling people lazy when you haven't walked in their shoes is just dumb. You have no idea of what they have been through.
Put this in perspective, in 2009, there were 7.8 millionaires in the USA(Source:Business Week). Compared to the total population, 307,006,550(Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division), that is only %0.03 of the total population. Affluent people with $500,000+, was 12.7 million, only %0.04 of the total population. Starting to get the picture that only a SMALL percentage of people hold the all the wealth? The American Dream, yea right...
Also there is a huge disparage between average CEO vs average worker employee pay. In 2007 it was 344 to 1!! In 2008, despite economic problems we all know about, it declined slightly, 319 to 1. The people making the CEO and the business money, get the table scrapings pretty much.
Capitalism to me is the exploitation of the population for the benefit of the few. They keep the peasants civility in check with lies and spin like, "If you work hard, you too can be rich!!". Until people wake up out of their dream world, this exploitation will continue.
Just one of the several reasons why I pirate and don't feel one bit bad about it.
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