The OP had three advantages that many kids today dont: he had at least two parents. Those parents had no contact with the criminal justice system and were themselves in good health (evidenced by the fact they were allowed to immigrate). And his parents were probably allowed to work. Many young kids today dont have two parents. Many young kids have one or more parents who are not properly citizens, who dont enjoy the priviledge of being allowed to work legally.

Today is not yesturday. Poor kids today face much greater challenges than those of the past. Direct comparisons of situations are almost always apples and oranges.

To believe this requires a baffling degree of historical ignorance.

It makes the poor more productive.

You just have to adjust monetary policy to maintain that status quo.

Of course, the opposite of that is true as well.

Ultimately the race isn't all about merit but also politics.

This is totally not what davidn20 wrote.

This is literally “pick yourself up by your bootstraps”. Get busy running is not a thing underprivileged kids can do.

Undeprivileged kids can try harder or less hard, same as privileged kids can try harder or less hard. The starting position makes a huge difference. Whether one tries or not also makes a huge difference.

At its core it’s the difference between believing anyone can succeed and believing outside factors are much more impactful than working hard. In America it is often times a conservative b liberal mindset.

It's a thing privileged kids can afford not to do. Underprivileged kids absolutely have to get busy running to get anywhere.

“Get Busy” sounds good when there is opportunity to improve. My point is that many people who are in a situation where working harder does not result in success. They do not have the tools, knowledge, access, etc to turn hard work into success.

> Young Jimmy can’t pull himself up by his bootstraps when dad is in jail and mom works 12 hour shifts at McDonald’s. School feeds him breakfast and lunch.

I don't see the difference. It sounds like Jimmy is starting at the point the OP's parents did, not OP.

Also OP never says that he won the race. He is hoping his children will do better than him. I don’t think anybody ever “wins”. You only trade something for something else.

This is the ideology I was arguing against since it comes purely from a view of someone successful. It assumes everyone is equally capable of “doing something”. But if you struggle to find your next meal, you can’t do anything besides.. Try to find food. There is no “doing something about it” because you are so disadvantaged that regardless of your action it’s impossible to escape.

In some cases you didn’t eat enough as a child and your brain is literally incapable of escaping. And you’ve never seen someone escape, so it’s not a known possibility.

From my perspective op won the race because he/she makes 100k so objectively isn’t poor and doesn’t have comparable hurdles.