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Comment by teekert | Hacker News Reader

I’d guess the 5% is some form of privileged elite. I see that.

To quote Stephen Jay Gould:

> I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.

But without the enticement of membership in the elite, with a greater share of society's wealth, power and privileges, no one would bother working hard to become doctors, lawyers, software developers and CEOs. We need a stratified society to have all these things the modern world gives us. It is only the desire to escape the cotton fields and sweatshops that spurs people to work. It is the only reason that our world has seen amazing advancements in science, technology and business. Capitalism depends on inequality, and we depend on capitalism.

This is logic of capitalism. This is our society's justification for incredible differences in pay and wealth.

What? One become a scientist because they are interested in things, or a doctor because they want to help people.

I was being rhetorical, echoing back SV's/tech's dominant ideology. For what I really think, see my replies to these threads:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10793226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15659455 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10451733

> It is only the desire to escape the cotton fields and sweatshops that spurs people to work.

Why do rich people work?

They don't need to escape the cotton fields and sweatshops.

Slaves worked the American cotton fields - why did they work with no chance of membership in the elite?

I'm pretty sure people in 1860 justified slavery with the same argument "It is the only reason that our world has seen amazing advancements in science, technology and business."

Einstein had to flee his country to save his life. From the "Encyclopedia Britannica":

> In December 1932 Einstein decided to leave Germany forever (he would never go back). It became obvious to Einstein that his life was in danger. A Nazi organization published a magazine with Einstein's picture and the caption “Not Yet Hanged” on the cover. There was even a price on his head.

He certainly had an uphill struggle and wasn't simply handed everything because of some innate privilege.

If you look at the list for the most famous people of all time, and especially for men[1], a large majority seem to have originated (and even remained all their life) outside what most people would consider the "privileged elite". Notably absent are some of the wealthiest individuals of all time, Crassus, Jakob Fugger, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller.

Of course, it doesn't disprove being born in favourable circumstances can and will affect your quality of life. But this list seems largely indifferent to how much money or power daddy has.

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01369-4/tables/3

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