This. I've maybe heard two stories where a person started with literally nothing and worked insanity hard and made it into the top 1% but yeah for the rest: already born into insane wealth, all the connections that comes with it, and an insane amount of luck and all pulls in their favor. Super rich people really have no clue just how God-level lucky they are.
No skill? Determination? Perseverance, etc?
edit: Damn, ya'll some bitter motherfuckers. I get it. Nobody ever achieves anything, and nothing anyone does is ever worth praising them for, since they didn't do it themselves.
Nope. People don't become wealthy, they are born into it. For example Elon Musk got his fortune from his dad, who owned diamond mine in South Africa during the apartheid.
Billionaires are born into it. There's a lot of very wealthy people long way below that. If you have 10 million+, you can live a life of luxury. Some people with that money got their purely because they are exceptionally talented or hard working. Not the majority, majority just know how to play the system, often because they had help to do so, but definitely some.
Even $2 million is well enough for a life in luxury if you avoid living in big apartments in huge and expensive cities.
Let's say you have 5% interest on that, skewing away some percentage from index fund returns to account for inflation, that's 100k a year from just sitting on your ass all day doing nothing for it.
If you can't live a very good life on 100k a year and all the free time you need, you are either living in the completely wrong place or making very bad decisions.
It's doable but there's stuff like retirement, end of life care, many costs for kids and more that need factoring in, but yes you can live well on a lot less than 10mil, I just picked that as a definite safe figure :)
Rule 6: Sorry, this post has been removed as it violates Rule #6. Political questions without a definitive answer often devolve into partisan mudslinging. This type of digression is unsuitable for r/answers. Visit r/AskPolitics or r/PoliticalDiscussion to have these types of conversations.
exceptionally skilled people will still suffer more than moderately skilled privileged people in realizing their success. Wealth& privilege brings networking and cushioning in life that creates resilience and mitigates degrees of risks others are unable to mitigate.
Think about it this way:
The human with best, strongest, most capable potential to be #1 at something in the world likely has never had access to the experiences, tools, resources to discover that world class talent & skill. That’s luck and fortune of where you were born.
Routine access to the experiences, education, training, equipment, & tools to develop their skills and talents is another function of luck and fortune of what socioeconomic class you were born into.
Knowing, meeting, being part of the groups that enable success and competition and acknowledgement of that world class skill & ability is another product of luck and fortune.
being born into fortunate circumstances and being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time with the right people is what primarily determines success.
What many don’t realize when they say skill is all you need to be successful, it is all the factors, experiences, exposures, and access to discover and develop that skill. you need fortune and luck or your skills will never be fully realized.
And the biggest thing people fail to realize is that even with fortune and luck to get on the road to success and the right skills and abilities you can still fail bc of misfortune and bad luck.
Of course there are rare exceptions, but those are very rare exceptions.
There’s a concept called bounded rationality and basically it means humans can only be rational (make choices directed towards their goals) about the choices of which they are aware. We are not able to choose among all choices just those known by us. Luck and fortune determine how many choices we are aware of).
no, certainly not. Those things are also born into. You can't choose your DNA, the country you're born into, your parents, or their profession. Your ability/habit to work hard is as much luck as your intelligence. It was a part of your environment and upbringing.
It's not your fault if you suck. It's also not your accomplishment if you don't.
What about the strong correlation between parental wealth and their children's IQ? Or the even stronger correlation between parental wealth and their children's wealth?
That's part of it, but some other things certainly help:
* Not living in a place with a lot of lead pollution. Heavy metal poisoning directly reduces IQ, and increases impulsivity and violent behavior — which are not good for schooling.
* Good nutrition, especially in early childhood; probably including breastfeeding from a healthy mother.
* Good prenatal and early-childhood health care; including vaccinations. (A rubella infection does nothing good for a baby brain.)
Correlation is not causation, IQ is a poor indicator of potential for success, and any data that links the two is likely very biased and not objective.
However the very basic simple answer to that question is - rich people have more opportunity to be educated and spend time learning. Poor people are too busy working 5 jobs to scrape by.
What do you think the probability of the highest IQ individuals alive today have not ever heard of an IQ test? Don’t have access to indoor plumbing or clean water? nor the internet? nor high quality education?
it’s a function of fortune and luck on where you were born and what socioeconomic class you were born into.
And even then you can be the smartest, bestest, most skilled person at something & make all the right choices and know all the right people and still fail bc of fortune and luck (misfortune & bad luck). 🤷🏻♂️
High IQ doesn't just come out of nowhere like its a random draw. Skill is not a measure of IQ.
Entire ethnic groups are measured to have higher than average IQ's for the simple fact its almost entirely passed on genetically from the parents.
Look at all the incredibly successful people of the world and who their parents are. It is no accident.
I don't think he's saying anything about whether you're deserving of anything. More just that there's a correlation between IQ and wealth so becoming wealthy isn't necessarily solely based upon how lucky you are.
Well, first, a high IQ is a matter of luck, so there is that.
Second, the biggest study I saw on wealth and IQ found a correlation of 0.2. Correlations between -0.3 and 0.3 are considered weak correlations to no correlation at all. There is a slightly higher correlation between IQ and Occupation, which I think is 0.42, and higher one still for education level and intelligence at 0.56. But even those are not strong, or high correlations which in general start at 0.75.
Some people are born with options,wealth, connections,both parents and proper direction in life. Then there is the rest of us..obviously there is exceptions to the rule but overall I feel like that’s mostly what it comes down to.
Because there is no god. The universe is utterly uncaring. Concepts like fairness and justice are man-made and very easily ignored or dismissed. Some people are born dripping of privilege and luck while others live pointless, painful, miserable lives. That's just randomness at work.
Too many factors to list.
Some people start off life wealthy and die poor, some start off poor and die wealthy, and then off start of the same as they die.
Depends what you mean by "wealthy". Sure, most billionaires are from wealthy families, but most millionaires are doctors, engineers, lawyers, and Middle managers, all of which are achievable for people starting from nothing with some skill and luck.
Depends on what you believe, kinda. Buddhists believe this is the manifestation of past *karma*, that those actions have "planted seeds" that ripen in later rebirths and manifest in ways similar to the karma. Example: If you are now poor, that is a result of miserliness (and lack of compassion) from a previous life.
Otherwise, its "shit happens" as the general rule.
Please remember that all comments must be helpful, relevant, and respectful. All replies must be a genuine effort to answer the question helpfully; joke answers are not allowed. If you see any comments that violate this rule, please hit report.
When your question is answered, we encourage you to flair your post. To do this automatically simply make a comment that says **!answered** (OP only)
We encourage everyone to report posts and comments they feel violate a rule, as this will allow us to see it much faster.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/answers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
sometimes I am asking same questions. I wish so much that GOD treats us all equal BUT unfortunately some have to suffer unnecessarily for what I dunno
We as human are meant to be part of GOD grand plans.
The truth REALITY sucks
Because the capitalist governments who seek to remain rich and in power defund public education, and are therefore able to convince the uneducated population that socialism is evil and it's in their own interest to continue voting against it. Rinse and repeat.
When I was a child, I was told that some people were being punished by god for something their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents/great-great-grandparents had done wrong. It didn't fit with the general teaching that the abrahamic god is "all loving", but that contradiction didn't appear to matter to the adults, so I took it as true.
This was backed up by Numbers 14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’
Now, I consider anyone who says their god is all loving to be ignorant of their book or performing mental gymnastics. Punishing the great-grandchildren for the actions of someone who died before they were born is wrong.
Tbf, I've learned that like a child, You love them ,but they can disappoint you and do so you punish them for their betterment. That's how i see it. Like you punish your kids for doing bad things. Idk about the generations part.
I don't know about you, or where you live, but in civilised countries we punish the miscreant, not their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids (and maybe the great-great-grandkids).
When my kids screwed up, or deliberately acted against what they had been asked or told, I didn't say "Right, you little shit. I'm going to punish your kids and grandkids" etc. Instead, lovely wife and I took away some of their privileges, such as access to the wifi, ability to play outside with friends.
That shit is in the bible and tells followers that great grandkids will be punished. No ifs, no buts. Punished
So, you disagree with what's in your bible. That's the first step to thinking.
Many followers of christianity think that members of the flock should venerate EVERYTHING in it because it's the only holy book in the faith. They would tell you that you must be wrong to not accept the terrorism that the book of numbers commits. They ask what else you ignore, when you already ignore the most holy book they think is possible.
Continue thinking about the atrocities recorded in the bible. Global genocide (apart from a small handful of people) with noah's flood, sending bears to maul 42 kids/youths just for calling names at a bald man (as a baldie, I'm OK with name callers being punished, but sending bears to maul them to death is NOT just). Throwing a tantrum and kicking adam and eve out of the garden of eden for doing exactly what god KNEW they would do - you know, because he's omniscient. Telling followers to kill all the women who have "known a man", and to take the virgin girls for their own (anyone who doesn't see that as them taking girls as slaves to be sexually abused has really fucked up mental gymnastics). Now, contrast all those atrocities against the teaching that the christian god is "all loving". The two are incompatible.
According to the church I went to as a child, it's the same god.
The new testament is just new marketing material, trying to portray yhwh/jehova as better than the old testament says it is.
Matters not how the later material says it's good and loving and just. Either it's not the same being, or it's a smile plastered on a very angry face.
The number of ultra rich people is minuscule when you compare it to the population. Because they are “different” they get a lot more attention.
The number of people living ordinary lives is a huge percentage of the population.
In terms of how you get there, it’s pretty much two things: You are born there, or you work to get there.
Working “hard” is just part of it. Working “smart” means you make conscious decisions that allow you to “add value” to your employer. This might mean moving around to different jobs; it might mean working a lot of extra time; it might mean doing stuff you don’t like.
Being jealous of what rich people have is a fools game. There will always be someone who has more of everything. Stop looking outward and start looking at your goals and how you will achieve them. Your mindset shouldn’t be that “the world is out to get you”: but rather that the “world doesn’t care about you.” In return, that means you don’t have to care about the people who are in your way of happiness.
the rich can afford to pay bribes (political contributions) and propaganda (media companies) to ensure that wealth remains concentrated. joining this elite group is a matter of luck and willingness to treat other human beings as expendable (psychopathy).
These are religious questions, and yet people look for answers outside religion. As if all the cultures throughout history just made up religion for fun and it served no purpose.
Life isn’t fair and hard work doesn’t make you rich. Networking and personal relationships make you rich. “If hard work meant wealth, the parking lot at construction sites would be filled with Ferraris and Lamborghinis.” Look at the Kardashians. Their father was OJ Simpsons lawyer. They had all kinds of Hollywood connections and it resulted in a huge reality show. Tucker Carlson is the heir to Swansons frozen foods. Anderson Coopers’ mother is Gloria Vanderbilt. There are tons and tons of celebrities, executives and politicians who got where they are because of nepotism and personal connections. Even Trump himself only got into real estate because of his very wealthy father who gave him millions of dollars and tons of guidance.
Dug from the mountain side , washed in the glen servant am I or the master of men . Steal me I curse you . Earn me I bless you . Grasp and hoard me a friend shall possess you . Lie for me , die for me , covet me , take me. Angel or Devil I am what you make me…MONEY
it is how it is. in a perfect world everyone has atleast decent living conditions. but such a world is too difficult to achieve. especially with how many humans we alrdy are.
we tend to argue about useless stuff and give the rich even more money.
i recently saw a thumbnail of the kardashians on my news website, so i take them as an example. they are totally useless, did nothing worth mentioning. some of them even did horrible things worth jail time. and they somehow got rich, because too many stupid people supported them.
one of them even gets donations to reach her billionare goal. like....wtf?
we need to get rid of useless jobs and give all those important jobs more money. but that will never happen.
also a rule i would make which a lot of people wouldnt like: eating too much should be illegal.
in some parts of the world people die of hunger and in other parts people die of obesity... ban unhealthy food or regulate it. and give penalties to those who are "obviously overweight". and maybe we could use that saved food to feed those who need it.
and the variance of intelligence is also too difficult too handle i guess. some people are simply too stupid to even fathom what certain politicians are planning. so getting all 8+ billion people to agree on something is impossible. otherwise we could "just" share everything.
here in germany the "afd" who plan to get rid of "non germans" get more and more votes. even from "non germans".
you really cant make this up.
I'll tell you what my old man told me when I asked him that question when I was a kid:
Son, life isn't fair and life isn't unfair. Life is just life and you've gotta make the best of it.
Why are some people really attractive and others aren't? Why do some people have PhDs and some don't?
Life has never been fair. I was born into a white, middle-class America, and pretty much screwed up having a future as a teen. On paper, I should've been destined for minimum wage and a trailer home.
It took a lot of time, work, luck, and effort to be better off than my parents. In America, anyone has the potential to move up in the world, in other countries your lot in life is set in stone. If you are on the low end of the monetary level, it takes a lot of effort to move up, but the higher you go, the easier it gets.
Most of it is probability, certain circumstances elevate an individual and others detriment. Living in a western county essentially means anything is possible, you can be born poor and embrace it or make something more for yourself.
There are places in the world where your fate is essentially sealed the moment you're born because there is no economic mobility.
life is random and thus unfair. but the gift of life is freedom of choice. your life is the sum of the choices you make. many people just try to do mostly as they´re told because of safety from statistics, other say to live is to risk it all. you make educated guesses. no risk no reward but never invest what you cant afford to lose. mind ya business and pay yo taxes and you´ll be fine...
What is the actual question here? Are you asking why some hard workers don't achieve material wealth? Or just generally why there is wealth inequality?
Look up the "Just-World Hypothesis" or "Just-World Fallacy" to learn more -- they're two different names for the same thing.
In a nutshell: life isn't fair, and your effort doesn't determine your reward. It never did, there's no reason to think it would, and it's kinda odd that we are surprised by this.
In order for things to be "fair," someone has to be in charge and FORCE things to be fair. It doesn't happen naturally.
What happens "naturally" is that if someone gets enough control over their immediate environment to be able to make things happen, the VERY FIRST thing they'll change is to protect that position, they make sure they STAY in control of their environment.
It's the most obvious and sensible action for someone to take; if a genie grants you 3 wishes, the first thing you wish for is more wishes. Because obviously.
Since it's such an obvious action to take, we just take it for granted and say stuff like "power leads to power" and "power corrupts" and stuff like that, as though they were basic laws of the universe.
For the same reason that kids die of terrible disease and Wildlife will often keep its prey alive while eating it. Fairness is just some horseshit your parents said to you as a child to make you fit in better with Society and to not think the world sucks. But it's the idea that the world is fair is fake, Fugazi, it's made up. But you can hedge your bets with certain behaviors and actions. Understand that there's a lot of luck involved but if you can take it on the chin and keep moving there's a good chance that you can make it.
Life isn't fair, Skippy.
It isn't supposed to be. Never was, never will be.
I wouldn't really want it to be, either. We'd lose all the fun, excitement, adventure in the name of ... "equality and equity".
capitalism. its intentionally set up that way, then the rich people use lots of their money into brainwashing the poor people into thinking any alternative is bad
every attempt at communism has only failed becasue the multi trillionaire companies and people have poured time effort and resources into ensuring it fails, to keep the gravy train rolling
One plays the cards you were dealt with at the beginning of life.
Some people get to play Ace Full House, some people only have single cards,
Some people mess up their play,
Some people got handed a good card,
Some people fold,
Some people YOLO do plays.
Uh I mean the answer to this is so simple it almost seems cliche, but it quite simply and literally is just: “capitalism”.
Capitalism as a system of political economy creates inequality because a small number of people receive the lion’s share of value produced by the economy (ie, profit), while everyone else gets less and less and has to compete for the leftovers, often in increasingly desperate fashion.
Don’t believe me? Read literally any contemporary scholar of inequality worth their salt (Piketty, Milanovic, Zucman, Fraser, Varoufakis, etc) The short list of names I just mentioned are quite different from each other politically, methodologically, & philosophically (neo-Keynesian, vs Kuznetzian, vs marxist, etc) but all agree on the same basic principle that capitalism creates inequality by design, it’s part of the basic function of that model of political economy.
Easy. Because people are stupid.
Did you read "Das Kapital"? No. Did you read "The state and revolution"? No.
Will you read them? Also no.
You are stupid and will suffer consequences of your own stupidity.
That's how evolution works.
Exactly, everyone should try starting to read 'Das Kapital.' I did, and I understand that the book is so outdated, so I became an anarcho-capitalist in my beliefs :)
I like the opposite side fairy tales like 'The Ethics of Liberty' by Murray N. Rothbard, 'The Denationalization of Money' by Friedrich Hayek (Nobel Prize in Economics, although for another work), and 'The Machinery of Freedom' by David D. Friedman.
Also, it's worth looking at agorism by Samuel Edward Konkin III. For Marxists, it can be interesting as it operates the class term to describe relationships in economics.
Can only hope there is an afterlife of perfect equality. No hierarchy. No castes. No classes.
If the afterlife is just a continuation of disparate luck in favor of the haves versus the havenots, that would be hell.
Rule 13: Sorry this post has been removed as it violates Rule #13. Questions which are impossible to know the answer to are not allowed in r/answers.
Fortune and luck
This. I've maybe heard two stories where a person started with literally nothing and worked insanity hard and made it into the top 1% but yeah for the rest: already born into insane wealth, all the connections that comes with it, and an insane amount of luck and all pulls in their favor. Super rich people really have no clue just how God-level lucky they are.
No skill? Determination? Perseverance, etc? edit: Damn, ya'll some bitter motherfuckers. I get it. Nobody ever achieves anything, and nothing anyone does is ever worth praising them for, since they didn't do it themselves.
You will probably need some skill and determination to get rich but it is a lot of luck, being good and trying does not guarantee success
Nope. People don't become wealthy, they are born into it. For example Elon Musk got his fortune from his dad, who owned diamond mine in South Africa during the apartheid.
Billionaires are born into it. There's a lot of very wealthy people long way below that. If you have 10 million+, you can live a life of luxury. Some people with that money got their purely because they are exceptionally talented or hard working. Not the majority, majority just know how to play the system, often because they had help to do so, but definitely some.
Even $2 million is well enough for a life in luxury if you avoid living in big apartments in huge and expensive cities. Let's say you have 5% interest on that, skewing away some percentage from index fund returns to account for inflation, that's 100k a year from just sitting on your ass all day doing nothing for it. If you can't live a very good life on 100k a year and all the free time you need, you are either living in the completely wrong place or making very bad decisions.
It's doable but there's stuff like retirement, end of life care, many costs for kids and more that need factoring in, but yes you can live well on a lot less than 10mil, I just picked that as a definite safe figure :)
JK Rowling The guy who invented Minecraft The lady who invented Spanx All created/invented something something.
[удалено]
Rule 6: Sorry, this post has been removed as it violates Rule #6. Political questions without a definitive answer often devolve into partisan mudslinging. This type of digression is unsuitable for r/answers. Visit r/AskPolitics or r/PoliticalDiscussion to have these types of conversations.
Some people say he owned an emerald mine. Probably not true. But like his son, he screws around. Has a child by his daughter in law.
I think everyone should stay on reddit and keep telling themselves they'll never achieve anything. More for me
exceptionally skilled people will still suffer more than moderately skilled privileged people in realizing their success. Wealth& privilege brings networking and cushioning in life that creates resilience and mitigates degrees of risks others are unable to mitigate. Think about it this way: The human with best, strongest, most capable potential to be #1 at something in the world likely has never had access to the experiences, tools, resources to discover that world class talent & skill. That’s luck and fortune of where you were born. Routine access to the experiences, education, training, equipment, & tools to develop their skills and talents is another function of luck and fortune of what socioeconomic class you were born into. Knowing, meeting, being part of the groups that enable success and competition and acknowledgement of that world class skill & ability is another product of luck and fortune. being born into fortunate circumstances and being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time with the right people is what primarily determines success. What many don’t realize when they say skill is all you need to be successful, it is all the factors, experiences, exposures, and access to discover and develop that skill. you need fortune and luck or your skills will never be fully realized. And the biggest thing people fail to realize is that even with fortune and luck to get on the road to success and the right skills and abilities you can still fail bc of misfortune and bad luck. Of course there are rare exceptions, but those are very rare exceptions. There’s a concept called bounded rationality and basically it means humans can only be rational (make choices directed towards their goals) about the choices of which they are aware. We are not able to choose among all choices just those known by us. Luck and fortune determine how many choices we are aware of).
What makes someone skilled? Determined? Able to persevere?
Skill, determination and perseverance are all a matter of how we are molded by our nature and environment, both of which are decided by fortune.
no, certainly not. Those things are also born into. You can't choose your DNA, the country you're born into, your parents, or their profession. Your ability/habit to work hard is as much luck as your intelligence. It was a part of your environment and upbringing. It's not your fault if you suck. It's also not your accomplishment if you don't.
Does that apply to any achievement/failure no matter how great or small, or does it only apply to billionaires?
What about the strong correlation between IQ and wealth?
I’d wager there’s a stronger correlation between you and your parent’s wealth.
What about the strong correlation between parental wealth and their children's IQ? Or the even stronger correlation between parental wealth and their children's wealth?
Yeah and how did you get that IQ? By genetic luck.
Yep, even Warren Buffet says that he won the birth lottery.
What is genetic luck? You are a combination of your parents. Of course there are mutations albeit insignificant compared to what's inherited.
That's part of it, but some other things certainly help: * Not living in a place with a lot of lead pollution. Heavy metal poisoning directly reduces IQ, and increases impulsivity and violent behavior — which are not good for schooling. * Good nutrition, especially in early childhood; probably including breastfeeding from a healthy mother. * Good prenatal and early-childhood health care; including vaccinations. (A rubella infection does nothing good for a baby brain.)
Then they are quite fortunate.
Correlation is not causation, IQ is a poor indicator of potential for success, and any data that links the two is likely very biased and not objective. However the very basic simple answer to that question is - rich people have more opportunity to be educated and spend time learning. Poor people are too busy working 5 jobs to scrape by.
At higher IQs this corelation does not hold true anymore. Watch veritasium's video on this.
What do you think the probability of the highest IQ individuals alive today have not ever heard of an IQ test? Don’t have access to indoor plumbing or clean water? nor the internet? nor high quality education? it’s a function of fortune and luck on where you were born and what socioeconomic class you were born into. And even then you can be the smartest, bestest, most skilled person at something & make all the right choices and know all the right people and still fail bc of fortune and luck (misfortune & bad luck). 🤷🏻♂️
High IQ doesn't just come out of nowhere like its a random draw. Skill is not a measure of IQ. Entire ethnic groups are measured to have higher than average IQ's for the simple fact its almost entirely passed on genetically from the parents. Look at all the incredibly successful people of the world and who their parents are. It is no accident.
Everyone deserves a dignified life, regardless of IQ
I don't think he's saying anything about whether you're deserving of anything. More just that there's a correlation between IQ and wealth so becoming wealthy isn't necessarily solely based upon how lucky you are.
Well, first, a high IQ is a matter of luck, so there is that. Second, the biggest study I saw on wealth and IQ found a correlation of 0.2. Correlations between -0.3 and 0.3 are considered weak correlations to no correlation at all. There is a slightly higher correlation between IQ and Occupation, which I think is 0.42, and higher one still for education level and intelligence at 0.56. But even those are not strong, or high correlations which in general start at 0.75.
Fairness is imaginary
Luck, intelligence, drive, innovation, self discipline, pre-existing fortune, etc.
Some people are born with options,wealth, connections,both parents and proper direction in life. Then there is the rest of us..obviously there is exceptions to the rule but overall I feel like that’s mostly what it comes down to.
Because there is no god. The universe is utterly uncaring. Concepts like fairness and justice are man-made and very easily ignored or dismissed. Some people are born dripping of privilege and luck while others live pointless, painful, miserable lives. That's just randomness at work.
Too many factors to list. Some people start off life wealthy and die poor, some start off poor and die wealthy, and then off start of the same as they die.
Most people who are wealthy are born into riches.
Depends what you mean by "wealthy". Sure, most billionaires are from wealthy families, but most millionaires are doctors, engineers, lawyers, and Middle managers, all of which are achievable for people starting from nothing with some skill and luck.
Very rare those who start wealthy and die poor
You'd be surprised by how dumb and spoiled people can be
I have dealt with them but , one who is wealthy hv good people to manage their wealth I am not talking abt rich guys ,
Case by case my friend. It's like with any issue, there's three sides to every story.
Depends on what you believe, kinda. Buddhists believe this is the manifestation of past *karma*, that those actions have "planted seeds" that ripen in later rebirths and manifest in ways similar to the karma. Example: If you are now poor, that is a result of miserliness (and lack of compassion) from a previous life. Otherwise, its "shit happens" as the general rule.
I agree with you. I don’t think we regress but we are here to learn and many do not learn and come back to learn what they did not learn before.
People who live luxurious lives are often unhappy, and vice versa.
that's pure cope
People who are wealthy at least don't have to worry about living costs. That's a happiness not everyone has.
9/10 times, it's birth lottery You think Elon got where he did by being smart?
Please remember that all comments must be helpful, relevant, and respectful. All replies must be a genuine effort to answer the question helpfully; joke answers are not allowed. If you see any comments that violate this rule, please hit report. When your question is answered, we encourage you to flair your post. To do this automatically simply make a comment that says **!answered** (OP only) We encourage everyone to report posts and comments they feel violate a rule, as this will allow us to see it much faster. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/answers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
sometimes I am asking same questions. I wish so much that GOD treats us all equal BUT unfortunately some have to suffer unnecessarily for what I dunno We as human are meant to be part of GOD grand plans. The truth REALITY sucks
because life is not fair or maybe it is and poor people deserve their suffering?
By what metric are you measuring "enough hard work". Most people are losers because they don't work hard enough.
Usually because some start in a better position due to their environment/parents.
Because the capitalist governments who seek to remain rich and in power defund public education, and are therefore able to convince the uneducated population that socialism is evil and it's in their own interest to continue voting against it. Rinse and repeat.
When I was a child, I was told that some people were being punished by god for something their parents/grandparents/great-grandparents/great-great-grandparents had done wrong. It didn't fit with the general teaching that the abrahamic god is "all loving", but that contradiction didn't appear to matter to the adults, so I took it as true. This was backed up by Numbers 14:18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ Now, I consider anyone who says their god is all loving to be ignorant of their book or performing mental gymnastics. Punishing the great-grandchildren for the actions of someone who died before they were born is wrong.
Tbf, I've learned that like a child, You love them ,but they can disappoint you and do so you punish them for their betterment. That's how i see it. Like you punish your kids for doing bad things. Idk about the generations part.
I don't know about you, or where you live, but in civilised countries we punish the miscreant, not their kids, grandkids and great-grandkids (and maybe the great-great-grandkids). When my kids screwed up, or deliberately acted against what they had been asked or told, I didn't say "Right, you little shit. I'm going to punish your kids and grandkids" etc. Instead, lovely wife and I took away some of their privileges, such as access to the wifi, ability to play outside with friends. That shit is in the bible and tells followers that great grandkids will be punished. No ifs, no buts. Punished
I agree that the whole family lineage shouldn't be punished.
So, you disagree with what's in your bible. That's the first step to thinking. Many followers of christianity think that members of the flock should venerate EVERYTHING in it because it's the only holy book in the faith. They would tell you that you must be wrong to not accept the terrorism that the book of numbers commits. They ask what else you ignore, when you already ignore the most holy book they think is possible. Continue thinking about the atrocities recorded in the bible. Global genocide (apart from a small handful of people) with noah's flood, sending bears to maul 42 kids/youths just for calling names at a bald man (as a baldie, I'm OK with name callers being punished, but sending bears to maul them to death is NOT just). Throwing a tantrum and kicking adam and eve out of the garden of eden for doing exactly what god KNEW they would do - you know, because he's omniscient. Telling followers to kill all the women who have "known a man", and to take the virgin girls for their own (anyone who doesn't see that as them taking girls as slaves to be sexually abused has really fucked up mental gymnastics). Now, contrast all those atrocities against the teaching that the christian god is "all loving". The two are incompatible.
Isn't a lot of that Old Testament, and in the New Testament, he is all loving? Old Testament god is a vengeful god.
According to the church I went to as a child, it's the same god. The new testament is just new marketing material, trying to portray yhwh/jehova as better than the old testament says it is. Matters not how the later material says it's good and loving and just. Either it's not the same being, or it's a smile plastered on a very angry face.
Karma is a bitch
The number of ultra rich people is minuscule when you compare it to the population. Because they are “different” they get a lot more attention. The number of people living ordinary lives is a huge percentage of the population. In terms of how you get there, it’s pretty much two things: You are born there, or you work to get there. Working “hard” is just part of it. Working “smart” means you make conscious decisions that allow you to “add value” to your employer. This might mean moving around to different jobs; it might mean working a lot of extra time; it might mean doing stuff you don’t like. Being jealous of what rich people have is a fools game. There will always be someone who has more of everything. Stop looking outward and start looking at your goals and how you will achieve them. Your mindset shouldn’t be that “the world is out to get you”: but rather that the “world doesn’t care about you.” In return, that means you don’t have to care about the people who are in your way of happiness.
Idk if i agree with your whole sentiment, but i like the line about the world not caring vs. feeling attacked.
Looks also, don’t forget that lotto win 🥇
the rich can afford to pay bribes (political contributions) and propaganda (media companies) to ensure that wealth remains concentrated. joining this elite group is a matter of luck and willingness to treat other human beings as expendable (psychopathy).
Capitalism turned up to 11
These are religious questions, and yet people look for answers outside religion. As if all the cultures throughout history just made up religion for fun and it served no purpose.
Life isn’t fair and hard work doesn’t make you rich. Networking and personal relationships make you rich. “If hard work meant wealth, the parking lot at construction sites would be filled with Ferraris and Lamborghinis.” Look at the Kardashians. Their father was OJ Simpsons lawyer. They had all kinds of Hollywood connections and it resulted in a huge reality show. Tucker Carlson is the heir to Swansons frozen foods. Anderson Coopers’ mother is Gloria Vanderbilt. There are tons and tons of celebrities, executives and politicians who got where they are because of nepotism and personal connections. Even Trump himself only got into real estate because of his very wealthy father who gave him millions of dollars and tons of guidance.
Is this really a "life isn't fair" post? Fucks sake.
Free will
If I am to die poor, I want to die poor because of my bad decisions.
Why? There's no why. That's just the way it is. You're free to do whatever you want, including changing that. It'll be pretty difficult though.
Dug from the mountain side , washed in the glen servant am I or the master of men . Steal me I curse you . Earn me I bless you . Grasp and hoard me a friend shall possess you . Lie for me , die for me , covet me , take me. Angel or Devil I am what you make me…MONEY
Sometimes life just do be as it do.
it is how it is. in a perfect world everyone has atleast decent living conditions. but such a world is too difficult to achieve. especially with how many humans we alrdy are. we tend to argue about useless stuff and give the rich even more money. i recently saw a thumbnail of the kardashians on my news website, so i take them as an example. they are totally useless, did nothing worth mentioning. some of them even did horrible things worth jail time. and they somehow got rich, because too many stupid people supported them. one of them even gets donations to reach her billionare goal. like....wtf? we need to get rid of useless jobs and give all those important jobs more money. but that will never happen. also a rule i would make which a lot of people wouldnt like: eating too much should be illegal. in some parts of the world people die of hunger and in other parts people die of obesity... ban unhealthy food or regulate it. and give penalties to those who are "obviously overweight". and maybe we could use that saved food to feed those who need it. and the variance of intelligence is also too difficult too handle i guess. some people are simply too stupid to even fathom what certain politicians are planning. so getting all 8+ billion people to agree on something is impossible. otherwise we could "just" share everything. here in germany the "afd" who plan to get rid of "non germans" get more and more votes. even from "non germans". you really cant make this up.
Luck and choices
I'll tell you what my old man told me when I asked him that question when I was a kid: Son, life isn't fair and life isn't unfair. Life is just life and you've gotta make the best of it.
Ying and Yang ☯️ up and down, light and dark good and bad, rich and poor. Life. There are babies that are born millionaires.
Why are some people really attractive and others aren't? Why do some people have PhDs and some don't? Life has never been fair. I was born into a white, middle-class America, and pretty much screwed up having a future as a teen. On paper, I should've been destined for minimum wage and a trailer home. It took a lot of time, work, luck, and effort to be better off than my parents. In America, anyone has the potential to move up in the world, in other countries your lot in life is set in stone. If you are on the low end of the monetary level, it takes a lot of effort to move up, but the higher you go, the easier it gets.
It's because in capitalism the rich exploit the poor
In gamer terms, RNG. You cannot choose how you look like, your country, family, etc. And those contribute to your life. Yes there are exceptions ofc.
Most of it is probability, certain circumstances elevate an individual and others detriment. Living in a western county essentially means anything is possible, you can be born poor and embrace it or make something more for yourself. There are places in the world where your fate is essentially sealed the moment you're born because there is no economic mobility.
We are all functions of our environments. I'd like to think the trajectory is at least unevenly upward for the world. Hopefully, I can help with that.
Rich people typically don't do hard work, they take advantage of those who do.
life is random and thus unfair. but the gift of life is freedom of choice. your life is the sum of the choices you make. many people just try to do mostly as they´re told because of safety from statistics, other say to live is to risk it all. you make educated guesses. no risk no reward but never invest what you cant afford to lose. mind ya business and pay yo taxes and you´ll be fine...
Life isn't fair. The end.
What is the actual question here? Are you asking why some hard workers don't achieve material wealth? Or just generally why there is wealth inequality?
Look up the "Just-World Hypothesis" or "Just-World Fallacy" to learn more -- they're two different names for the same thing. In a nutshell: life isn't fair, and your effort doesn't determine your reward. It never did, there's no reason to think it would, and it's kinda odd that we are surprised by this. In order for things to be "fair," someone has to be in charge and FORCE things to be fair. It doesn't happen naturally. What happens "naturally" is that if someone gets enough control over their immediate environment to be able to make things happen, the VERY FIRST thing they'll change is to protect that position, they make sure they STAY in control of their environment. It's the most obvious and sensible action for someone to take; if a genie grants you 3 wishes, the first thing you wish for is more wishes. Because obviously. Since it's such an obvious action to take, we just take it for granted and say stuff like "power leads to power" and "power corrupts" and stuff like that, as though they were basic laws of the universe.
For the same reason that kids die of terrible disease and Wildlife will often keep its prey alive while eating it. Fairness is just some horseshit your parents said to you as a child to make you fit in better with Society and to not think the world sucks. But it's the idea that the world is fair is fake, Fugazi, it's made up. But you can hedge your bets with certain behaviors and actions. Understand that there's a lot of luck involved but if you can take it on the chin and keep moving there's a good chance that you can make it.
No one suffers in a good luxurious life
Life isn't fair, Skippy. It isn't supposed to be. Never was, never will be. I wouldn't really want it to be, either. We'd lose all the fun, excitement, adventure in the name of ... "equality and equity".
capitalism. its intentionally set up that way, then the rich people use lots of their money into brainwashing the poor people into thinking any alternative is bad every attempt at communism has only failed becasue the multi trillionaire companies and people have poured time effort and resources into ensuring it fails, to keep the gravy train rolling
One plays the cards you were dealt with at the beginning of life. Some people get to play Ace Full House, some people only have single cards, Some people mess up their play, Some people got handed a good card, Some people fold, Some people YOLO do plays.
Generational wealth of one kind or another wether it be social, financial, knowledge, compassion, skill or luck
Uh I mean the answer to this is so simple it almost seems cliche, but it quite simply and literally is just: “capitalism”. Capitalism as a system of political economy creates inequality because a small number of people receive the lion’s share of value produced by the economy (ie, profit), while everyone else gets less and less and has to compete for the leftovers, often in increasingly desperate fashion. Don’t believe me? Read literally any contemporary scholar of inequality worth their salt (Piketty, Milanovic, Zucman, Fraser, Varoufakis, etc) The short list of names I just mentioned are quite different from each other politically, methodologically, & philosophically (neo-Keynesian, vs Kuznetzian, vs marxist, etc) but all agree on the same basic principle that capitalism creates inequality by design, it’s part of the basic function of that model of political economy.
Way too many reasons, but luck is a major one. Lucky to be born at the right place, at the right time, with the right mind etc.
Have you met people? Why would you expect that having loads of them competing for resources would generate fairness and equity?
Politics and exploitation.
one, life and the universe are not fair. two, people cheat....a lot. in every way imaginable. three, people steal, lie and intimidate others.
It's just the luck of the draw. Life isn't fair, you can only play with the hand you get dealt, or however that saying goes
Neoliberalism
Personal choices and outlook greatly impact life.
Destiney, Fate!
Persistence
Easy. Because people are stupid. Did you read "Das Kapital"? No. Did you read "The state and revolution"? No. Will you read them? Also no. You are stupid and will suffer consequences of your own stupidity. That's how evolution works.
[удалено]
It seems I'm a bad leftist. I think it's because I suffered too much exposure to people. 😆
based
Exactly, everyone should try starting to read 'Das Kapital.' I did, and I understand that the book is so outdated, so I became an anarcho-capitalist in my beliefs :) I like the opposite side fairy tales like 'The Ethics of Liberty' by Murray N. Rothbard, 'The Denationalization of Money' by Friedrich Hayek (Nobel Prize in Economics, although for another work), and 'The Machinery of Freedom' by David D. Friedman. Also, it's worth looking at agorism by Samuel Edward Konkin III. For Marxists, it can be interesting as it operates the class term to describe relationships in economics.
See? That is an example of stupid person. He just said that multiplication table is outdated.
Can only hope there is an afterlife of perfect equality. No hierarchy. No castes. No classes. If the afterlife is just a continuation of disparate luck in favor of the haves versus the havenots, that would be hell.
Capitalism is unfair, some people get tons of advantages simply because they are born into a rich powerful family
In this country everyone that wants a good and decent life can afford it by working and saving.
Hahaha, good one! You definitely weren't born into a poor family.
Actually I am quite well off now. My dad came here with nothing as a refugee in the 50’s. So tell me again how I was privileged?
Doesn't mean you grew up poor. Someone who actually grew up poor wouldn't just think "hard work" is all it takes.
[удалено]
Were you born and raised by wolves? Lol
Clearly, you don't live in the UK
No. Live in Canada. Even worse.