That whole idea always seemed like a meme.
Just work hard, go to college, save your money!
For some of us this has worked out. For the large majority of people in the west, however, this has resulted in modern day slavery.
No matter how much you dislike the system you do have to live in it. Choices you make an an individual might well be in conflict with your views on the aggregate.
This is stupid. The alternative is not going to increasingly overpriced and under valued college.
Sure, there is no guaranteed path to riches. But a comfortable existence free of major wants is more within reach than its ever been.
I've witnessed it. I know a couple of people who's net worth is more than a million dollars by simply working all the time, saving their money and buying their three family home. The more savvy ones even own more than one.
And these are people that knew no English, had an elementary education, worked at jobs that lots of people would not work at.
I guess the point is that you can make it, but you have to be willing to work for it.
And typically, you also have to be willing to live at a lower quality of life and save, which most people born in the west aren't.
I have never met one though.
I sometimes think it's another American folk tale.
I'm not talking 30-40 years ago.
I'm talking big money, not graduating from a professional school money--bacically med school.
It seems in the past just hard work, and maybe different cultural values, could be enough to get ahead here?
(I said nothing racist, so please no sanctimonious lashing.)
Going from the standard to an extreme outlier does not bode well for the masses.