Socio-political rant warning: You know what really grinds my gears? Heads or tails thinking. That something is either black or white. I was just reading debates over minimum wage, which of course, brought up the old argument about the American dream. A vast majority of people seem to think that either moving up in the world is near impossible due to the socio-political system they are a part of; or they think that anyone can make a life for themselves if they just put in the hard work and adopt a go getter attitude. Lets be realistic. Not everyone can become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Just like not everyone can become a famous musician. :( those things, we can all agree, take a very specific combination of skill, determination, and luck. Why is it so hard to swallow then that finding a job that makes 80k a year also requires some degree of skill, determination, and luck. How about a job that makes 30k? Of course, those jobs are much more common than those positions in the higher echelons, but they are not so bountiful that every person can have one. Our social structure relies on an imbalance of wealth. Now, the problem is that the imbalance has become so extreme, that the structure itself is bending under its weight. There are too many people that just cant make that magic combination work for them enough to move up. There are people who give up because the task is daunting. There are people who had so much luck, that skill and determination went right out the window. There are people who started with mediocre income, and through determination and skill, now make more than 90% of the population. All in all, my point is that if you think the world is either heads or tails, you are dead wrong. You are entitled to your opinions. You are probably right about your point to some degree. That doesnt mean that the other side of the coin is mutually exclusive or wrong. You need both sides of the coin to spend it, and the guy at the register doesnt care which is facing up. End rant.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 13:22:58 +0000