I grew up in a lower middle class family and had to pay for my own College tuition from my part time job!!! WAAAAA!!!

LIFE IS SO UNFAIR!!!

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Welcome back! Drive by post or are you here to stay?

I agree, though I do think that when one class of people has almost no opportunity, systematically, then something is broken. Black people, partly due to racism, have had less opportunity in this country, and that sucks and hopefully over time people change and become more accepting and black people get a fair shake. The bigger issue, to me, that a huge proportion of black people are in a shitty poverty/crime/drugs/gang cycle that is nearly impossible to break out of. THOSE people have almost no opportunity in this country, whether they're black, white, hispanic, asian, they're part of an underclass that has almost zero percent chance of doing anything besides continuing the cycle. We need to alter the way we deal with poverty, the way we deal with single parent homes, the way we deal with drugs and crime. It's been 40, 50 years in many of these major cities, and nationwide, with largely the same policy of being 'tough on crime' and fighting a drug war while also doing everything we can monetarily to support single family homes and those in poverty. It doesn't work, we need to dramatically alter those policies or this cycle just continues on.

I am The Short White Guyâ„¢! I have maxed out at 63"! I am almost 50 years old! I REALLY want to play in the NBA!

LIFE IS SO UNFAIR!!!






Forgot the "WAAAAA!!!" part.

It depends on what you think of as opportunities.

Opportunity: a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.

I think opportunities often conflated with the ability to take advantage of an opportunity.

In the US, I think most people do have the same opportunities.

Everyone's ability to take advantage of those opportunities are different.

Each person's current situation (and previous decisions) will determine whether or not they can take advantage.

Everyone has the opportunity to go to Harvard. Whether or not you have the money to pay to go, or the grades to qualify to go is a different story.

Of course not, one has ever said that. Life is unfair, no question. Shit happens. Parents suck.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, it is obvious that opportunity is substantially less equal now than it has been in previous decades (and better than it was centuries ago). Of course, I can guard my family and my children and my assets against the random shit that happens, and help them to take advantage of avenues that are closed off to most folks. That's all well and good for my kids, but it isn't for society at large (which has become clear over the past few election cycles).

There is far less geographical and economic freedom than 30-40 years ago, and the barriers to social and economic mobility are higher and it is getting worse. At the most extreme extent, this lack of opportunity curtails freedom and is counter to some basic goals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". We hold on to absurd claims of "theoretical meritocracy" (anyone can go to Harvard) as a way of ignoring real-life trends, in that the likelihood of going is negligible for large classes of people. "Harvard" isn't really where the issue is most extreme, since they are able to address this by massively subsidizing the small sliver of poor who qualify. The inequality becomes more pervasive downstream. Calling that out isn't in any way a communist, it is simply a more pragmatic capitalism.

BTW, Good to see you, Matt!

speaking of which this video touches on this (& political correctness):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJBIy58PJQI

You must be a white male to think that way...

Welcome back! Drive by post or are you here to stay?


Never left. I just sold my business and have a real job now where my employer would frown upon me posting 300 times a day :-)


The bigger issue, to me, that a huge proportion of black people are in a shitty poverty/crime/drugs/gang cycle that is nearly impossible to break out of.


I disagree with the wording used here. "Huge portion" for instance, 11% of white people live below the poverty line while ~27% of black people do. Are more black people by percentage of population living in poverty, certainly. Is it "Huge" in comparison to other races, I'd say no. "Nearly impossible", again, disagree. Difficult, more difficult certainly than if you're white. However mobility for those in poverty regardless of race is still significant. Depending on which study you want to claim as truth anywhere from 50% to 20% of African Americans end up moving out of the bottom quintile if they are born into it. Even the lower number is far from "Impossible". Are those numbers greater if you're white, certainly.


THOSE people have almost no opportunity in this country, whether they're black, white, hispanic, asian, they're part of an underclass that has almost zero percent chance of doing anything besides continuing the cycle.


Again I have to disagree. There was a study a while ago that stated three things that you shouldn't do and your odds of not staying in poverty went up dramatically, forgive me if I can't remember the numbers, but if I recall following these three rules nearly eliminated the odds of living in poverty. Don't get pregnant as a teenager before 21 and or if you're not married. Don't drop out of HS. Have a full time job. Now the later is a bit difficult in areas of high unemployment. That being said even the zip codes with the highest unemployment are around 50%. BTW the three highest unemployment zip codes in the US are predominately white.



"Almost no opportunity" IMO, would mean...near zero. Stay in school, don't get pregnant and get a job. Even in the highest unemployment areas that creates the opportunity to not be in poverty for nearly half the population in those areas.

Don't confuse the above with me saying it's "Easy", it's not, not by a long stretch but I reject the idea that it's near impossible or so hard that only a small percentage of the population could ever achieve it on their own.

~Matt

"Never left. I just sold my business and have a real job now where my employer would frown upon me posting 300 times a day :-) "



LOL!! Being your own boss can be a bitch.

But to answer your question, of course not everybody has the same opportunity. Maybe if you started out with two million dollars then you could have had your own reality show and then became president as well.

I think these guys both had the same opportunities


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winklevoss_twins


pretty typical, self-made white male success story, just like Donald.

 realize this post was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but in all seriousness there is a really good article in this months upcoming "The Atlantic" on the US, opportunities and social class
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/


The article is well written but long, but once chart really sums it up well: A chart showing the Gini Coeff of income distribution discrepancy (i.e. a higher number means the rich are really rich, the poor are really poor) and social/economic mobility (lower number means generations have more opportunity to get rich or poor despite what their parents accomplished).

According to it, the US has a big problem with both components. Now most of the posters here are middle or middle/upper economic class here, so there is a certain bent in opinions, but before you say, "Let them eat cake" consider that every society has a breaking point. The US is heading into dangerous territory and the next major depression may get ugly.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Hey, I already linked to that article in a previous thread! One feature missing from poverty discussions is that poverty rates are calculated by income. A major trend has been the erosion of wealth and the barriers to education and lack of access to credit, which all exacerbate poverty, and make mobility more difficult. It has never been equal, but is clearly more unequal now, even more so than income would indicate.