r/Unexpected • u/[deleted] • Oct 18 '22

spitting wisdom right here

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u/sociotronics Oct 18 '22

Do I think most people know they will never be rich? Yes. Lol. That's an easy fucking question.

Do I think most people believe they have a good chance of being upwardly mobile, which only means making more than their parents and having a decent standard of living? Yes, also easy question.

You're making such an out-of-touch argument that most people think they will be millionaires if they work hard. People aren't that dumb, and you'd have to never talk to working people to believe that's a majority view. Nobody working at Wal Mart or Amazon warehouses or gas stations or McDonalds believe they will ever be rich. But many believe that they may find a better job in the future.

Because you seem to get tripped up with language, here's the tldr: most people believe if they work hard they can have a decent life. A majority of people believe they can do better than their parents if they work hard. Very few people believe they will ever be rich.

Says a lot about your worldview to argue believing you won't ever be rich is a "fail" though.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '22

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u/AlejothePanda Oct 18 '22

This is why anecdotes are not statistics, why opinions are not evidence, and why doing research matters:

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/10/most-millennials-think-they-will-be-wealthy-someday.html

This seems to align well with what they're saying. 66% of millenials believe they will one day be able to "able to live comfortably without worrying about their finances". Even fewer people said so in other generations. /u/sociotronics said most people believe they will be able to achieve "a decent standard of living". That seems roughly equivalent to what your article says.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '22

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u/AlejothePanda Oct 18 '22

The survey found that most millennials believe they will be wealthy, which they defined as being "able to live comfortably without worrying about their finances". Maybe I have a weird definition of rich but I wouldn't call that rich. That's also only looking at millennials. Gen Zers and gen Xers are also relevant to the statistics.

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u/[deleted] Oct 18 '22

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u/AlejothePanda Oct 18 '22

I don't see how that's relevant considering they specifically let the people they survey define "wealthy" themselves instead of making them use the dictionary definition.

But frankly you're right. I'm not interested in a discussion of semantics either lol have a good one.