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Hard work is often touted as the key American virtue that leads to success and opportunity. And there's lots of evidence to suggest that workers buy into the belief: For example, a recent study found that Americans work 25 percent more hours than Europeans, and that U.S. workers tend to take fewer vacation days and retire later in life. But for many, simply working hard doesn't actually lead to a better life.
In the past, economists have acknowledged that citing hard work as the path to prosperity is overly simplistic and optimistic. Ultimately, whether hard work alone can lift people into better economic conditions is a more complex question. The formula only works if an individual's efforts are met with opportunities for a better life. According to research, it's getting harder and harder for Americans to move up the income ladder.
A new poll from the Strong, Prosperous and Resilient Communities Challenge (SPARCC), an initiative to bolster local economies, found that Americans are quite skeptical of the narrative connecting wealth with personal agency. SPARCC found that 74 percent of those surveyed believed that most poor people work hard, but aren't able to work their way out of poverty due to the lack of economic opportunities. In the U.S., 19 percent of income inequality is attributed to predetermined circumstances such as a person's race, gender, and parental income. The SPARCC report also points to past research showing that economic mobility and health outcomes are greatly affected by geography as evidence that individual hard work won't ensure success because opportunities aren't evenly distributed.
The hard-work argument also plays into the policy discussion around inequality. As Katharine Bradbury and Robert Triest, both economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, write:
Increased inequality may result from increased risk taking and entrepreneurship in an environment of rapid technological change, with some entrepreneurs producing better, or just luckier, innovations than others, and reaping greater rewards. It may also result from increased disparities in work effort, with more industrious individuals earning higher incomes as a result of their greater effort. In both these cases, one could argue convincingly that the increase in inequality is justified and that no remedial changes in public policy are needed. On the other hand, if the increase in inequality results mostly from factors largely beyond the ability of individuals to control or counteract, then a strong case can be made for a public policy response.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 13 2017, @01:09PM (11 children)
Just be careful that your death is not their salvation lest the last words you hear be "life isn't fair!".
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 13 2017, @02:06PM (10 children)
Stolen money is never anyone's salvation. Just the opposite, in fact. No society has ever benefited from having a large and growing population of thieves.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 13 2017, @03:06PM (9 children)
Given that we have more than enough resources out there to allow everyone to live a middle class lifestyle, but some people have gold toilets and some are living in poverty, I wonder who the thieves are?
Let's apply some logic to a scenario. Two people. One has an empty house with no car and the other has a house filled with 2 TVs, 2 dining room tables, 2 cars, etc, etc. Which one is most likely to be a thief?
BTW, growing wealth inequality is generally a symptom of a failing state.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 13 2017, @03:24PM (8 children)
No, you do not. You know who they are and do not want to admit it. A thief is someone who takes something not freely given. Period.
Wealth inequality is a fallacy. Fiat currency based economics is not a zero-sum game. Someone having more does not mean what you have is reduced.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 13 2017, @04:12PM (7 children)
Yes, for example the fruits of one's labor. Paying less than enough to live on for full time employment is an example of stealing the fruits of someone else's labor.
Coercion takes many forms.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:31PM (6 children)
No, sweety. Employment is a contract. If you dislike the terms, either argue for better terms or take your business elsewhere. Once you accept the terms, you have agreed that what the employer is offering you is what you deserve. There is no moral component to pay rates.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 13 2017, @09:56PM (5 children)
Sorry, but there certainly is, as long as the potential employee is bent over a barrel by the need for income. One day, perhaps you can complete remedial kindergarten and you'll understand.
Many people understand that law and ethics is considerably more complex than Bartertown.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @12:24AM (4 children)
One day you'll pull your head out of Marx's asshole and realize nobody owes you a fucking thing in this life. Not an equal start. Not a job that pays what you want. And certainly not comfort.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday April 14 2017, @01:31AM (3 children)
Who hurt you? What could possibly made you that hurtful and indifferent to everyone?
May I suggest you exile yourself to a desolate island? You seem to want to be isolated and the landscape would match your insides.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @10:46AM (2 children)
I'm not indifferent to everyone. People down on their luck I tend to help when I'm able. Thieves like you I wouldn't piss on if you were on fire though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday April 14 2017, @01:41PM (1 child)
Says the thief.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 14 2017, @02:21PM
[Citation Needed]
My rights don't end where your fear begins.