The 'glass floor' keeps the children of the rich at the top

Re:The 'glass floor' keeps the children of the rich at the top by clairity on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @12:06PM (#21260002)

the american dream is built on the ideal (myth?) of meritocracy, so it's not surprising that people want the world to adhere to that ideal: bright and hardworking people rise, dull and lazy people fall. we expect it to work both ways. it's not about the pie.

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Re:The 'glass floor' keeps the children of the rich at the top by tengbretson on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @12:43PM (#21260488)

> bright and hardworking people rise, dull and lazy people fall

I'm with you on the first part where hardworking people rise, but I don't think the second part necessarily follows. Consider the actual reason at the heart of why we work to accrue wealth in the first place. We try to accrue wealth so that our failings and misfortunes don't set us back. If we accrue $300 dollars we don't lose our apartment when we have to pay for a flat tire. If we accrue $30,000 maybe we gain the confidence to tell our boss to get lost if they ask us for too much overtime. If we accrue $3 billion we can afford to take some risks and still land on our feet. That's the point of being wealthy!

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Re:The 'glass floor' keeps the children of the rich at the top by clairity on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @06:06PM (#21264467)

so if you're dull and lazy, but have unearned wealth, you should never fail? why do you want to believe so hard that wealthy people should never lose their wealth in any circumstance?

it's a classic misallocation of resources, and how monarchies have time and again fallen into despotism, decay, and eventually overthrow. it's why democracy and capitalism came into being in the first place.

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