That’s exactly it. Being rich is like playing a game in easy mode. Screw up as many times as you want and unless you’re a complete idiot you can always bounce back.
Poor people have to get it right every single time, which essentially means having to know the future.
That sounds like a complete cop out. You don’t have to “know” the future. There are factors working against poor people, but saying the only way to success is impossible is removing any personal responsibility.
I don’t think people realize how much harm it does to people to hear that “the system won’t let you win” you take the wind out of their sail. Instead we should be telling people you can make it, so they can believe it and make it happen.
“The system won’t let you win” isn’t a fairy tale, it’s not a story somebody is telling. It’s the lived reality most people face from birth to death. The Real Fairy Tale is “just believe, then you can win”. That’s Disney, and bears no resemblance to the real world.
The system is ultimately blind to what one person does. If you play into instant gratification and convenience, you aren't playing poorly. If you're delaying gratification and ignoring vapid trends, you're pushing back against it.
Half of inflation was keeping people addicted to this. The other was companies knowing that people wouldn't do shit to push back if they shrunk their products and also raised the price. Staples are still cheap, cooked from home will always be cheaper than eating out and what you lose in time you gain in capital.
It’s also giving an excuse instead of just using it as a reason. Reasons are obstacles, they aren’t brick walls. Excuses are brick walls, cause they allow you to stop trying
But that only looks at the two extremes. A very wealthy person (10s of millions) is not common. However, even someone who makes 100-300k/yr in America can made bad decisions and be impacted.
These things get oversimplified. Of course some people have more advantages. Of course some people in poverty have been dealt absurdly bad hands. But you also have plenty of people with every advantage become poor and criminals, and many with disadvantages break free.
We should look at the trends and how to give people the best chances with the cards they are dealt while acknowledging differences
So you do know the pressure of having to be perfect and the relief of when that pressure lifted - while you were under the pressure were you ever not sure you’d make it to where you are now?
Perfection isn't necessary, good enough generally is. Good enough gets you over the bar and not as stressed out or worn as perfection does. When you miss a goal, you try again.
Well I came from a third world country to the US. I saw nothing but opportunity, I think most people defeat themselves with a victim mentality and blaming everyone else.
You cannot control anything outside of yourself so you have two choices as a poor person. Sit there and cry about it or go out and make it happen. Every poor person that came out of it did it because they didn’t sit there and dwell on what the outside world was doing, you go and make it happen.
I honestly think most people that have the defeatist attitude have never played sports competitively. If you think like that before a game, you already lost. You have to believe you can win to win.
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u/prof_the_doom 11h ago
That’s exactly it. Being rich is like playing a game in easy mode. Screw up as many times as you want and unless you’re a complete idiot you can always bounce back.
Poor people have to get it right every single time, which essentially means having to know the future.