has this topic seriously devolved into a debate about the use of the phrase "since the beginning of time"?
poor people remain poor, its true. everyone can't be rich, everyone can't be in the middle. there are tons of factors. i think we can all agree that spending less than you earn is helpful.
but it is also true that racism, sexism, and classism and other 'isms' hold people back. people want to pretend that they "boot-strapped" themselves up, in particular, people in America. IN particular people, in America, in these forums.
if hard work made millionaires, brown female blue collar laborers would be millionaires.
guess what, if you are a white male in America, you are standing here on generations of brown people and women.
and saying its complainy pants is a bs cop out.
its easy to call people whiners, when your people weren't systematically screwed over at every turn.
and sure, some white guy is gonna turn up after my post, talking about how poor his family was, and how he was the first in his generation to do x, y, and z. and thanks to his hard work and scrimping and saving, he's the man he was today. and someone is gonna whine about how the "Irish", "polish", "insert white immigrant here" had it hard too at some point.
but seriously, is it so hard for you to just acknowledge that you received the advantage of looking exactly like the people that run the system!?
from the job interviewer, to the teacher at your school, to review board of what ever college you attended, to the boss you work for,
the person who rents or sells to you. the person that makes the banking decisions for your loans.
redlining is real