Current Events > Do people that are born poor have "low chance" to make it in life?

(+) Yeah! (+)

As far as I know, they have the same chances to go to school, finish college (or trade school), buy a house, and buy a car that the rich people do

I wont lie they probably will never be a suit of a big company with a prestigious title but they can still get paid well in other lines of work

Id understand a 3rd world country but how exactly do people stay in poverty in America?

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It's a different kind of animal

In third world countries your mind is preoccupied with the idea of physically being able to survive

Here you are surviving by default but it is now your mind that has to be able to survive and how well you can think and resist thoughts of failure

Clearly they do.

Wealth doesn't guarantee results, but it provides more margin of error. An average rich kid has a better more opportunties for success and room for failure than an extremely poor kid that happens to be brilliant.

Note, that's not saying that all disadvantaged children never make it in life and all rich kids do. It's more like one has a far either time than the latter. I don't see how this is a controversial take either.

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The same chances?

youre comparing someone born with the ability to buy a house and go to any college they choose on daddys credit card to someone whose parents very probly cant afford to pay for their secondary education.

How is that the same?

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All schools aren't equal. Where you live can determine the quality of your education, what type of opportunities you have available, and the quality of living really. If you grow up in a shitty part of the city attending a school with low funds, unmotivated teachers and small class options, you're going to have to make the best of what little they have to offer. I know in my hometown that where you go to public school depends on your address. They assign schools to you and if you don't have a car to drive your kid to another county you're stuck with it.

Even schools within the same district will offer different types of classes. Some don't even have advanced courses. Certain sports may not be offered, job skills, extracurriculars, etc.

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Absolutely.

I have made so many mistakes in my life, but am doing very well today because my father is upper middle class.
If my less fortunate friends made my mistakes they'd be fucked because they had no financial support system to get them back on track.

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america's upward mobility rates is among the lowest in the developed world most due to the lack of financial investment in the area of childcare, nutrient programs, and basic education.

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Being born poor means nothing other then how much harder you have to work to in life.

That and a big misconception with with American dream is stereotypical rags to riches story. But you dont even need anywhere near 6 figures to achive it.

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College is mostly pointless, the internships and networking are far more important to get a job and rich people tend to have more easy time with those.

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Many schools are funded by using property taxes. So schools in areas with high property values are better funded and often provide higher quality education.

The inverse holds true.

So even if two children both have an opportunity to go to school, they can receive wildly different educations.

Also people from higher economic backgrounds get more opportunity to just focus on school. When I was a senior in High School I took 6 AP classes. When that workload ended up being too much, I quit my job at Target so I could focus on my studies. I could do that because I only really had the job to develop work experience and not because my family or I needed the money. Someone from a less affluent background doesn't get that same option.

It is these little things that add-up over time.

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LightHawKnight posted...

College is mostly pointless, the internships and networking are far more important to get a job and rich people tend to have more easy time with those.

Internships are a great thing to bring up, because when your parents are loaded, you can take an unpaid internship in an expensive city without a second thought(like, say, as one of Nancy Pelosi's secretaries).
If you have to support yourself, that same internship is a pipe dream. Also, Richie's dad knows a guy on the company's board(or maybe all the guys, if he's really rich), so the internship is probably a formality and it doesn't really matter if Richie is any good or not, they (or their parents) know all the right people.

America, the greatest country in the world, has endless opportunities that allow someone to "make it". Problem is, if you're from a disadvantaged background, you won't have the exposure to learn about these things as easily as someone from an affluent background. But I believe it's not just a matter of income.

Looking at what drives wealth, a big aspect is having a strong family unit, where you have both parents in the house and even better if you have the older generation contributing. In this environment, the responsibilities are shared for raising kids and maintaining the household, and kids are better exposed to more view points and learn more and live more. In addition, the parents have the wisdom to draw from the older generation in making better decisions. If the family is affluent, then this means the wealth of knowledge of wealth is passed down to help the family maintain and potentially bolster their status. And even better, they have the safety net of wealth to take more financial risks.

In contrast for the extreme poor family counterparts, chances are it's a single mother household and that right there is a MASSIVE disadvantage. A single mother is stuck with all the responsibilities of maintaining the house, and raising the children, and still paying the bills. This puts the kids are a big disadvantage because the mother doesn't have the time to commit to devoting to the kid to the give the kid the knowledge and exposure comparable to a nuclear family home.

There's also the aspect that a wealthy person living in a community has access to better resources; schools, better food distributors and what have you, but I hypothesize that this part can be mitigated considerably by having a strong community in poorer areas, which, in my region, we don't have. The bulk of a child's learning is not from the school, but in the home environment and the community in which they live in. Having weak community ties coupled with a weak family structure makes things difficult for kids to get more opportunities.

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I don't think it's really a matter of chance. It's just a whole hell of a lot harder. As someone else said above the margin of error is much smaller. If you come from an affluent family you can afford to be a fuck up for a couple of years and still come out of it alright. You're not afforded that if you're poorer. You can't afford to fuck up your scholarship, or dig yourself into a financial and legal hole with alcohol and drug use.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/29/study-to-succeed-in-america-its-better-to-be-born-rich-than-smart.html
Oh hey, look at this.

They have a lower chance for prosperity, but there are avenues to help.

If they are able, they can enlist in the military. That is one method to secure some upward mobility. The military will provide reliable salary, housing, healthcare, and training. As well as pay for college and certifications.

ElatedVenusaur posted...

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/29/study-to-succeed-in-america-its-better-to-be-born-rich-than-smart.html
Oh hey, look at this.

Well yeah. For me to go to university i wouldve had to have my shit together by like 13 and worked my ass off for a scholarship.

I dont mind being a carpenter but if id come from money id definitely be doing something else.

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If everyone had the opportunity to get "a small loan" of a million dollars from their parents...

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another aspect is risk aversion. if your parents are wealthy, you are able to take some financial risks. even if you fail, you can fall back to your family.

if your family is poor, you really can't afford to fail.

let's say as twenty somethings, you get a business opportunity, but it will cost everything you have on top of a hefty loan. how many poor kids can actually accept that level of risk??

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^the bigger issue with that is the legitimacy of it

think about how many business opportunities are presented to you only to end up being a scam

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I think there's challenges being poor and potentially in a single parent household, but in a lot of scenarios there are jobs that will allow someone to succeed, even if they didn't attend college. Some of those jobs are hard work and potentially labor intensive, but they are options that are available in probably a lot of cases. And over the years gaining experience in certain fields, people can climb the ladder and gain higher pay.

Someone who is able-bodied and wants more money may have to go into labor work if they don't have a higher education. That may not be an option for everyone in every city and in every state, but overall I think a 40 year old saying working in fast food at minimum wage (and not even as a manager) is the only option is false. Maybe in some cases, but I don't think so overall

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They can succeed with the right support. Biggest influence is family and having a high education/successful mindset. There are resources out there in schools that don't require a ton of money or any at all

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