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Income inequality in America has been growing rapidly, and is expected to increase [PDF]. While the widening wealth gap is a hot topic in the media and on the campaign trail, there's quite a disconnect between the perceptions of economists and those of the general public.
For instance, surveys show people tend to underestimate the income disparity between the top and bottom 20% of Americans, and overestimate the opportunity for poor individuals to climb the social ladder. Additionally, a majority of adults believe that corporations conduct business fairly despite evidence to the contrary and that the government should not act to reduce income inequality.
Even though inequality is increasing, Americans seem to believe that our social and economic systems work exactly as they should. This perspective has intrigued social scientists for decades. My colleague Andrei Cimpian and I have demonstrated in our recent research that these beliefs that our society is fair and just may take root in the first years of life, stemming from our fundamental desire to explain the world around us.
http://theconversation.com/lifes-not-fair-so-why-do-we-assume-it-is-45981
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 11 2015, @12:05AM
I think his point was more that, if you're born rich stop thinking you've worked hard to get where you are. Realise that hard work doesn't always mean wealth, and rid yourself of that sense of entitlement: "I'm well paid because I worked hard: I deserve this money. If you're not well paid, you didn't work hard enough even if you worked harder than me, which you clearly didn't because I'm well paid for my hard work."
Ask anybody with a disability who has the same achievements as you, even though they're at a severe disadvantage and so had to work much harder, but is paid much less than you are if they're lucky enough to find a job at all. You'd be surprised at how often you hear something that translates to "Oh, you have a disability? Well, fuck off retard, I've got normal people who aren't stupid and lazy."