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Originally Posted by fishdonkey
So you consider spoiled kids who have never accomplished anything on their own to be successful? Most people don't.
I'm sure we're all aware that success and richness aren't the same, thank you.
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Originally Posted by 3rdCheckRaise
Paying for college is of course only what rich people do. Following logic of a lot of people ITT, you didn't spend money on education and bought yourself 150k worth of future payments but you only made yourself richer...and right jobs obviously didn't have anything to do with overpaid education...got to love it.
Not everyone has the luxury to afford going to somewhere like Harvard. You need some serious money or connections to get in. How do good decisions = success when so many people can't even make so many certain decisions? And even if you got in, going there is no promise of success (though I will concede it may boost your chances).
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Originally Posted by DPatty
Do most of the wealthy people you know simply inherit it? Most of the wealthy people I know earned it... that's just me though though.
In general, I find those that simply inherited often have a big standard of living drop because their parent's fortune is then taxed in passing, split up amongst grandchildren, and the kids don't know how to maintain the wealth either.
Sorry, I don't know many rich people
I do doubt inheritance is taxed so highly as to suddenly make a family rich in one generation and poor in the next.
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Is it really that sensationalist of a claim to say that the vast majority of wealthy people got their through hard word and perserverance?
Yes it is, because not only have I seen zero evidence or citations to back this claim up, it just seems lazy to assume success is a direct result of work and not take luck into account. IMO, while hard work totally accounts for a good number of people getting far in life, luck plays a much bigger role than people are giving credit for.
Let me put it this way: Something like 5% of America is above the $250K mark. That's 15 million out of our 300 million people. Am I supposed to just believe 285 million people aren't working as hard? Cuz that's alotta lazyasses