I think one thing that changed in recent years is that there are more possibilities for hitting it big. Sure, it's survivor bias and all, but it takes one successful indie game (Minecraft, Flappy Bird), a good investment in the right time (early Bitcoin, early Ethereum, GME in December) and you can never work again in your life. Similarly if you are lucky enough and your Twitch channel becomes popular, you can stream some videogames and take donations which equate to multiply of what a "normal" job would give you.
Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
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Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#62> The informed public – wealthier, more educated, and frequent consumers of news – remain far more trusting of every institution than the mass population. Is “informed public” an accepted term of art in social science research? Because if not, that seems like an incredibly (and gratuitously) biased label.
The funniest thing to me is this mid-wit notion of thinking you are 'informed' by reading news sites and getting a degree from a 21st century university.
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#63There was a short window of time (anthropological scale) in the western world where this was seemingly true. The American conservative propaganda latched onto it and tricked people into thinking it was true. The fact is whenever quick upward mobility has been possible anywhere for a large number of people, it has been built upon slavery, colonialism and/or cheap imported labour. It was someone else's hard work that w…
This has been true whenever a society has injected large amounts of capital into the bottom classes of its society. Slavery, colonialism, and cheap imported labor are ways that lower mercantile classes can see significant wealth (generated from slavery, the colonies, or cheap labor) injected into their class at very little expense. However, they are not the only ways. Expansion into new territory, gold rushes, new te…
> sufficiently progressive taxation and societal reinvestment can do this as well.
Can we get an example of this?
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#64There was a short window of time (anthropological scale) in the western world where this was seemingly true. The American conservative propaganda latched onto it and tricked people into thinking it was true. The fact is whenever quick upward mobility has been possible anywhere for a large number of people, it has been built upon slavery, colonialism and/or cheap imported labour. It was someone else's hard work that w…
> has been built upon slavery, colonialism and/or cheap imported labour As far as I understand, this is actually a myth - at least the first two. It's a common cynical refrain that the current level of abundance would be impossible without slavery. There are many many places where there has been slavery throughout the years, and they have not ended up richer for it. The American South, where slavery was more prevalen…
Slavery engenders a culture of self-righteous laziness and entitlement in the slave owners and cynicism and internalized oppression (a “chip on their shoulder”) in the slaves.
Both of these persist for many generations post slavery. We are still dealing with them in the form of everything from police violence to far right and far left performative extremist ideologies re-enacting the drama.
I disagree with the people who say slavery is responsible for our wealth. We would be much, much wealthier and far less dysfunctional as a culture had it never existed.
One of the more intriguing ideas I’ve run across is that total slavery abolition is a major contributing factor to the industrial revolution by pricing all labor and incentivizing automation.
I wonder if Egypt and Rome would have industrialized and the solar system would look like the world of The Expanse now had slavery been abolished in the ancient world.
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#65I'm not sure how else to become a doctor. I'm not sure how else to get good at an instrument, or anything really.
Working hard is necessary, but perhaps not sufficient, for a better life to most people. I understand that this study is international, but a common thread among the most popular countries to which people immigrate, America included, are places where outputs are most proportionally and predictably mapped to inputs. You may have a harder go at it than somebody else, and starting conditions can drastically impact the process, but working hard towards an objective that makes you useful to other people will almost invariably lead to a better life.
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#66I can’t think of any way to improve your lot in life without working hard. Unless you inherit money or win the lottery, no one is going to hand you a better life. We have a safety net for the disabled. If you are able-bodied and refuse to work hard yet still complain that life gave you a raw deal, I don’t have any sympathy for you. Everyone I know who is very successful (outside of FAANG employees who seemingly coast…
If you are pretty you can marry rich.
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#67There is less social mobility in the United States (that paragon of bootstrap-pulling) than in the United Kingdom (where class is explicitly acknowledged and accepted.)
https://www3.weforum.org/docs/Global_Social_Mobility_Report....
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#68> The informed public – wealthier, more educated, and frequent consumers of news – remain far more trusting of every institution than the mass population. Is “informed public” an accepted term of art in social science research? Because if not, that seems like an incredibly (and gratuitously) biased label.
It seems to be a misnomer given by the (academic) elites.
It’s problematic to label your followers as fools.
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#69Starting conditions (where one was born, levels of wealth and opportunity there, one's parents' education and jobs) are shockingly predictive about an individual's future. Hard work leading to social mobility has always been the exception, not the rule. Most will not beat the odds since if they did, those wouldn't BE the odds. A lot of us are just so deluded by survivorship bias borne of listening only to success sto…
How much social mobility we talking?
Statistically nobody goes from trailer park to billionare by working hard.
You have very, very, good odds of doing better than your parents if you manage to get to age 25 without incurring a felony record, addiction to something that will likely kill you or too many child support payments.
edit: I'm only talking about the US
Re: Survey shows people no longer believe working hard will lead to a better life
#70I keep saying this over and over again; if those on the top of the system want to keep enjoying the benefits of the system, they need to give enough to the bottom to maintain the legitimacy of the system in the eyes of those who maintain it.
Those on top have deluded themselves into thinking that they’re smarter and better than past elites, when in fact they seem to be making extremely similar mistakes.