Originally Posted By: sini
No, the question is how much are you responsible for your own fate, and how much of it is out of your control. American Dream is to build yourself up from poverty with hard work and smarts. Is this even achievable these days?

Rags to riches stores are about as common as lottery winners, this means that hard work and smarts are no longer reliable way out of poverty. This means that as society we are failing our poor, and in process making more of them.
Once again you misunderstand something that the rest of us know at a visceral level. The American Dream is not about money. The American Dream is about being able to take care of your family and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Sometimes that is measured in money for some people but for most it has more to do with happiness which is not measured with dollar bills.

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