Unfortunately, I can't find the statistic, but I saw somewhere that the "1%" who prevent anyone else from joining is a false argument. The data show that it is really a revolving door where you might be "1%" for four years and then fall off only to be replaced by someone else. Of course, the Waltons, Buffets and Gates are the exception
That may well be true; I don't know. But what I do know, from long observation, is that for most people what they believe to be true is more important than what is really true. That is why my post said ". . . the increasing
appearance that . . ." It actually may be the case that most people who work hard enough and make wise choices can "overcome and succeed" (as you put it). I have serious doubts about that theory, but I'm sure you sincerely believe it. But knowing that you were right will be scant solace when the castle is going up in flames with you inside.
Let me give you some context for my remarks. The young wife and I have for a number of years now enjoyed a place among the top 1% in income and, more recently, in wealth.* Yet I was born to teenaged high school dropouts and grew up in poverty, living in a variety of trailer parks and cheap, often dilapidated apartments. I went to generally crappy public schools, sometimes several different ones in a single year, and was sometimes out of school for extended periods of time when my family moved around. I am the first in my family to go to college, and that was only possible because I joined the military. It has taken long years of very hard work, self-deprivation and wise choices to get where I am now. I am the example that validates your own belief, if you will.
At this point, I could easily sit back and condemn those who complain about rising inequality as whiners with a "victim mentality". After all, I made it here, why can't they? Yet I never forget that I have been incredibly fortunate along the way. I was born with abilities and interests that society values. People have helped me when they didn't need to. Opportunities have arisen at precisely the right time. Yes, I have made the most of them, but most people will never see those opportunities. For a poor kid, the path to success is a walk along a knife edge - one slip and it's all over. Kids born to wealthy families get many more opportunities to fail. There is a built in safety-net that catches them and sets them back on the path to a successful life.
I may be wrong, but I do see an increasingly self-contained world of the elite. They live separately, they work separately, they play separately, and they educate their children separately. It is an entirely separate reality, a gilded life where it is possible for a child to grow up and never know that poverty, illiteracy, hopelessness and despair are the norm for all too many people. Growing up like that, how could they not come to see themselves as normal, not privileged. And how could they not simply assume that if you don't have what they have, it must be because you are lazy, stupid or criminal. The better parents will ensure that their children see life outside the bubble and develop an appropriate appreciation for their own good fortune. But I have spent much time among them and have seen that all too many of those parents do not.
You don't have to apologize for being rich, Marko. I don't. But I do believe that mine is a path that most cannot follow. Looking around at our society today, it is my impression that social mobility is in fact dropping in the US, that more and more people are being squeezed out of the middle class, that the elite are becoming more and more distant, and that our government and our financial system are directly contributing factors. I think it is unhealthy for the economy and our democracy. Even setting aside any moral considerations, I care about inequality because when the flames come, they will burn the just and the unjust alike.
* Probably. There is some debate about the proper "entry point" for the 1%. This is an interesting discussion about that issue.
How Much Money Does It Take To Be In The Top 1% of Wealth and Net Worth in the United States