the L curve and you..... Do you think wealth distribution in this country has anything to do with hard work?

Question

Or is it simply who you know.
http://www.lcurve.org/

the L curve affects my life. How about yours?

Answer 1

Hi ZH. I've know only three people in my life who were actually super wealthy (money counted in billions); the first two inherited the wealth, and achieved nothing of significance while they were alive. The third also inherited, but hated the wealth, but did her best to create grants and funds for underprivileged children.

I've known, on the other hand, a lot of ostentatious neuvo riche --maybe their money was counted in millions. Without fail, they are unpleasant people, and with only one exception I can name, they gained their wealth by connections and some form of white collar sneakiness.

Working in corporate America as I have, I see that the most successful people are often sneaky, undermine others, steal other people's efforts and take undeserved credit. I don't believe it has always been this way, but I believe that around the time of Reagan, a mythos of wealth-above-all was created, and the ideal had nothing to do with goodness, or concern for the rest of society.

Some right wing people love to lean on the ideas of Ayn Rand, proclaiming that all of the advances of humanity are based on the machinations of the super-rich. I don't believe that is true. I believe that all that is worthwhile in this world was built on the hard working backs of common people.

In my life, I have learned that no amount of skill, knowledge or ability will even get you a job, or grant you even the meanest level of personal comfort. What has been created is an extensive system of indebtedness; young people leave college snared in a web of debt which takes them years to pay off... this fuels a corrupt insurance-banking business that is in bed with the educational establishment.

If you do not enter into this web of life-long debt, you are of no value to corporate America, and will probably at this point not even be allowed to work.

It's really a fairly dire situation, which is going to lead, in very short order, to many millions of homeless and unemployed people. Some hard times are on the horizon. I know that is true of my own life, and I sense it is universally true in our society.

Answer 2

Absolutely not. Some of the hardest working people in the US, people who put in 50-60 hours a week at backbreaking jobs, need Food Stamps and Medicaid to keep their families alive.

And some of the laziest, most useless people in this Country and drawing a couple million a year in salaries and stock options. Plotting, scheming and cheating may be hard work, but they aren't useful labor.

Laffer, for whom the L curve is named, based his research on Jack Kennedy's tax cuts, which were across the board. That did stimulate both growth and prosperity Targeting tax, "relief" to the 10% wealthiest americans, as the Bushes and Reagan did only stimulates inflation unaccompanied by General Prosperity.

The highly touted Bush "Tax Rebate" for the middle class turned out to be refund anticipation loans that resulted in many Anericans having to pay fines and penalties when their actual refunds fell short of the projections.

Answer 3

I have worked hard all of my life and I really would not call myself rich, but I would call myself wealthy. Wealth is a relative term, so wealth distribution is also a relative term. Those who want a lot of material things and don't work for it, usually don't have it and complain about those who seem to have those material things handed to them. Those who work hard for those material things, generally acquire those material things.

For me, I have what I need and most all of the things I want materially speaking. I consider myself wealthy because I have my kids, a great fiancee, a great family, a good job doing what I like, my health and most of all the freedom to worship my God the way I see fit to do so. That is what makes me wealthy and that is what most other people around the world classify as wealthy.

I really feel for those who need material things to be considered wealthy. They will never be happy.

Hey Univee, your answer is a perfect example of exactly what I am trying to say. Your collegues who are "successful" are not happy, so how in the world can they be wealthy? They do not have all they want. They have not been able to appreciate what they really have in life.

Oh and by the way, my father and grandfather were both self-made millionaires. Neither stabbed friends and/or family in the back while becoming a millionaire. In fact just the opposite happened many times over. Both gentlemen consider themselves extremely wealthy because they have stong faith in God, strong close families, and are well loved by all they meet. In their older age, neither had good health, but both appreciated every day they were alive and every person they met. Truely wealthy men. I hope someday to be as well.

Answer 4

Not hard work, but working smart, having a plan, making the right decisions, etc.

If you choose to drop out of school and dig ditches, being content to dig all day, you will work very hard, but you won't get rich.

It's not just hard work, but also ambition to do better, to work hard towards being the boss, founding one's own business, etc.

The schlub who works hard at a menial job 60 hours a week is working hard, but it isn't him who is responsible for the success of the business or the wealth created from it. He is, in fact, a beneficiary of the vision, the thought, the sweat of the people who created the product, made a business plan, searched for investors, built the business, hired the people, sold the product, etc, etc. They're the ones who took the risks, not the hourly schlub.

There are too many ignorant people who think they deserve things they haven't earned, and are jealous of people who worked hard AND smart. Jealousy is such an unseemly thing.

Answer 5

This is a major problem. People who are high income earners are arrogant and think there wealth is a direct result of effort put in . . . dumb luck and divine intervention are just as important. As a member of the top 5%, I will tell you that luck has been more beneficial than hard work. My biggest talent has been being in the right place at the right time and being brave enough to say o.k. I am truly one of the luckiest people on earth . . .

Answer 6

No, it has nothing to do with hard work....ask a teacher or a social worker like me....we have some of the highest stress jobs there is and get paid next to nothing.

Answer 7

Hah! ninety two%? in case you had caught to a greater functional declare like fifty 5% i could've believed this way of poll, yet there is not any way ninety two% si the effect of a countrywide professional opinion poll. And it extremely is coming from somebody who regards even the wonderful polls as close to valueless using fact i've got easily taken training that coach how person-friendly it extremely is to manage them. showing one-sided evidence like what you describe is a classic thank you to invalidate a poll.

Answer 8

There's not much point to my posting anything additional....univee has said it quite well.

The system in this country is SET UP for the rich.

If you HAVE money, it is quite possible to get lots and lots more.

If you DON'T have money, it is a most unusual set of circumstances which must occur for you to get money.


the rich get richer and
the poor get poorer

Answer 9

it's mostly to do with who you know. In very few cases does it actually have to do with hard work.

Answer 10

Yes I do believe that wealth distribution has a lot to do with hard work.