Are the rich lucky or do they work harder than the rest of us?

[btctony]

I think being born into an extremely wealthy family is luck. I think getting rich, because of a lottery winning is luck.

I don't consider someone who started a company, built it from the ground up, and made millions from it as lucky. Maybe there was some luck involved, but not like the examples above. Those people are rich, because it was given to them.

[bUU]

Maybe there was some luck involved, but not like the examples above.

The implicit question here is whether it is legitimate to "consider" differently two people who did all the same things (started a company, built it from the ground up, etc.), and one succeeded while one failed, the only substantial difference being luck.

[btctony]

The implicit question here is whether it is legitimate to "consider" differently two people who did all the same things (started a company, built it from the ground up, etc.), and one succeeded while one failed, the only substantial difference being luck.

Are these two people identical twins? LOL. They didn't do "ALL" the same things. It's impossible.

[bjl584]

First you have to define rich vs. poor. Then you need to define luck vs. hard work.

If you ask 100 different people to define those things you will get 100 different answers.

[bUU]

Are these two people identical twins? LOL. They didn't do "ALL" the same things. It's impossible.

Indeed, it is as likely as not that the person who failed did more and better than the person who succeeded - because knowledge, skill and effort are not all that go into determining success or failure - luck makes the different.

That was the point.

First you have to define rich vs. poor. Then you need to define luck vs. hard work. If you ask 100 different people to define those things you will get 100 different answers.

Yet both your response and Tony's leave the question unresolved, and therefore the implicit problem unconsidered. What I worry about in that context is that equivocations are a convenient way of avoiding issues for which any substantive remediation would involve things that the equivocator wants to delay or disrupt.

[disneysteve]

The implicit question here is whether it is legitimate to "consider" differently two people who did all the same things (started a company, built it from the ground up, etc.), and one succeeded while one failed, the only substantial difference being luck.

Indeed, it is as likely as not that the person who failed did more and better than the person who succeeded - because knowledge, skill and effort are not all that go into determining success or failure - luck makes the different.

That was the point.

I guess what I don't grasp is what people are counting as "luck". If you and I both started widget businesses at the same time in the same town and after a year or two, one of us had a thriving business and the other one was broke and had to shut down, are you saying the only difference would have been one of us getting lucky?

[btctony]

I guess what I don't grasp is what people are counting as "luck". If you and I both started widget businesses at the same time in the same town and after a year or two, one of us had a thriving business and the other one was broke and had to shut down, are you saying the only difference would have been one of us getting lucky?

Your widget business thrived, because you chose a location right next to the Apple store. Mine failed, because it sits on the bad end of town behind the Waffle House. LOL.

Have I had too much coffee today or is this thread getting comical?

[hamchan]

Meritocracy is a myth that is propegated to keep the "have nots" in their place. I can at least say that from my perspective as a woman, that who you marry has more to do with financial "success" than anything else.

[BuckyBadger]

Meritocracy is a myth that is propegated to keep the "have nots" in their place. I can at least say that from my perspective as a woman, that who you marry has more to do with financial "success" than anything else.

Really? I am of the opinion that who I married had absolutely nothing to do with my financial success.

I neither "married money" nor did I marry a lazy reprobate, and that leave me a pretty wide spectrum of husbands from which to choose.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Nope. Marriage can also ruin your finances so it cuts both ways. Yes it could improve it or it could worsen it.

Rich depends on rich. My mom would not be considered rich but is definitely comfortable with pension, medical, retirement and no debts! So not millionaire but she makes a lot of month, has a home free and clear but for property taxes and everything she makes is hers to spend. I'd say she's very "rich" and comfortable.

[hamchan]

I've known many many wealthy women over the years (through work) and while mostf them are perfectly nice people, very few became wealthy on their own. Many had never worked a day in their lives. Most were white also.

Conversely the working class women I have known have been contributing a substantial amount of the household income, of not all of it, are mostly non-white, and work very very hard.

This is just my observation.

[BuckyBadger]

That's a pretty limited world view.

There are lots of working female professionals who become wealthy through nothing more than their own hard work and by getting a good education and working hard at a well paying job.

But that is just my observation, as well. We are clearly observing different groups.

But I was raised to not think that I was going to school to get an "MRS" degree. Rather that I was going to school to get a good degree in a scientific field that would allow me to make a living for myself regardless of if I ever married at all.

[disneysteve]

I can at least say that from my perspective as a woman, that who you marry has more to do with financial "success" than anything else.

This may have been true in my parent's generation when women weren't really present in the workforce in significant numbers (except for traditionally female jobs like nurses or teachers). Today, though, I don't think it's true at all. I know quite a few very successful women and many of them aren't married at all. Women now outnumber men in colleges across the country. I think the percentage of women in medical school might also be over the 50% mark. Women are definitely making their own way in the world today. And I don't think luck has anything to do with that either.

[hamchan]

When I say, "wealthy women" I am talking about NFL wives, wives of senators and congressmen, wives of big business owners. I'm sure there are some women who are wealthy to those levels on their own, but I never met one. Either way, like it or not, the issues of gender, race, wealth and poverty are still very much intrinsically linked. Even if some strides have been made.

[youngblud]

If I didn't take that chance smoke break with Mack, my tech support buddy back in 1999 I might still be in a dead end job. He told me there's good money in online porn.

I put up a crappy site and sold adult check id's. 36 signups in one day. I knew my life would change drastically overnight.

I taught myself how to design sites and worked my ass off for a year. Later I started using cheap asian labor and expanded.

Luck definitely, but desperation, skill, motivation, timing, and working hard all came into play.

I wish I could thank him again. Btw I quit smoking for the most part :-)