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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

The darker meaning of the phrase "Freedom isn't free." Of course, everywhere you go, having more money provides the opportunity for more freedom than having less money, but perhaps nowhere on earth is the difference bigger. In America, if you have lots of money, you can build a space program and launch your own car into heliocentric orbit. If you have very little money, you have virtually no opportunity to do anything. Ask someone who needs to work three jobs to eat how free they feel.

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When I first read it, "perhaps nowhere on earth is the difference bigger" seemed like an incredible and obvious exaggeration. But maybe your point is that in countries with much wider _lifestyle_ disparity (widespread poverty vs. corrupt billionaires), those billionaires wouldn't have the opportunity to build a space program? And so the difference in 'opportunity' between the ruling class and starving citizens is less than the difference between the person with three jobs and Elon Musk?

Okay, I still don't think I'm getting it. Going out on a limb, I'd say that poor people in the United States have incredibly more opportunity by almost any measure than the bulk of people on earth.

Happy to consider where I may be wrong -- what am I missing?

And yet the chances of having a stable home (owned or rented) and being healthy are much much lower for those born to poor parents vs those born to rich parents; it is prima facie evident that 'opportunity' is not equally available even taking into account skill and tenacity, the parent lottery is a much larger factor.

My comment is on the difference between the top and bottom. Definitely not implying the poor in the US have less freedom/opportunity than the poor in all places. They used to say the sky's the limit. Obviously the sky is not even the limit anymore, as long as you have money.

Yep! But do you really think that the difference in opportunity between the rich and poor in America is larger than anywhere else?

For instance, can a poor person get rich in America? If so, is this easier/harder than other places? Once rich, can they start a space program if they wish? Is this easier/harder than other countries?

If the point is that when poor, you don't have the "opportunity" to start a space program, I agree :). I also think it's an odd way to define opportunity, and I'm not sure it indicates anything negative about America.

Anyway, I expect that this is tangential to your actual point, so I don't mean to to drag us too far down a pedantic side street :).

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