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How's that supposed to work?
(lemmy.world)
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this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2024
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They're not necessarily that unhinged from a moral perspective. They're just incredibly privileged and ignorant.
They truly believe that because they didn't get stuck with a low-wage job that it must be an active choice that people make, and that people should strive to be better to improve society.
And when you point out that they're privileged they see it as an insuly - like you're saying they didn't earn their way. And that's the real rub. Many wealthy people absolutely do work their asses off, and from their perspective all that work has paid off. What they don't understand is that their success is a mixture of their hard work AND luck.
Saying they've been lucky shouldn't diminish their work. I think everyone who works hard to be a success should have that opportunity. We're not asking that their hard work be ignored. We're asking that everyone else's be recognized with a living wage.
They actually are that unhinged, and have been for awhile...
There was a time EVERYONE was like this, back in the 50's or so they did a bunch of experiments and found people who were poorer were dumber, more violent, prone to crime, and more likely to have mental issues...
So they concluded that people fell into poverty because of personal failings.
Funny thing about Science, you can have all the right data and still get the wrong answer. Most commonly you get cause and effect backwards.
These people weren't poor because they were violent and stupid, they had merely been reduced to a state of being violent and stupid because of the horrible things their poverty exposed them to.
Conservatives never got the memo, and those that did, ignored it.
My current total comp puts me in the top 1--2% for my country (based on reported incomes). The difference between the billionaire class and me is massive; I still have to budget for my bills, expenses etc.
That said, I am fully aware that I'm in a privileged position.
I grew up in government housing and suffered malnutrition as a child because my single working mother couldn't afford enough food. I worked my arse off in school and was lucky enough to be eligible and accepted into a scholarship programme for University; I would not have been able to attend otherwise.
Since then I've had relatively good career opportunities and have taken advantage of them. I tried hard and continue to do so because I know what it's like to not have enough.
I think that I worked hard to get where I am. I do not consider myself rich (where some people might understandably do so), but I know what it is like to be wanting.
Despite my hard work, I do not in the slightest think that I got to where I am based purely on bullshit like grit and determination. I have absolutely taken advantage of opportunities in front of me, but I was lucky to have those in the first place. I think I deserve to be where I am, but I also think plenty of others also deserve it and are deprived of the chances that I got by pure happenstance.
Yes, you have to work hard to change your lot in life, but to say that hard work will solve everything is ludicrous.
I'm entirely on board with a living wage, UBI, and anything else to make things more equitable. No one should have to worry about feeding their family. And I'm happy to pay more tax to make that a reality.
How does having certain morals/principles fit in? I know plenty of health care workers and educators who do so because it's how they want to contribute to society. Not only that, but rejecting offers with 2-300% increase pay from the private sector, only because it goes against their principles? They'd work less as a result too!
It takes some effort to imagine the level of human shitstain to suggest the low pay is "deserved" or due to a lack of not being lazy.
I think a lot of people attribute to malice that which is coming from ignorance.
We all live in bubbles of one kind or another. I like to think that I work very hard to identify my biases and privileges, but I know I fail.
Some people never try to challenge their biases, so they remain in ignorance. It's not that they're evil - just that what's so weird to the rest of us is their normal.
I work for (but do not live in) a tiny city (around 10 employees for the entire city) that's an enclave for the super-rich. We're talking 8-9 million dollar houses being the norm.
The residents here aren't evil people in their hearts. They just live in a completely separate world from the rest of us. They went to private schools, fly on private planes, and the poorest people they interact with on a regular basis have 8-figure valuations.
They think they're middle-class because most of them aren't billionaires even though their houses cost more than I make in a century.
They're immorally rich, but they don't know it.