Society

[Gandalf]

Obviously one's starting point in life is going to affect one's ending point. I don't know how or even if you should rectify this. Parents are going to attempt to give their children the best life they can. How do get the lower socio-economic parents to demand more of their children, push them, explain to them that they will have to worker harder and longer to have a better life? How do you get wealthy people to instill a greater sense of service, responsibility and work ethic?

It is a very complex issue, but I think the worst place to start is to make higher education expensive or to reduce spending on education. I happen to think this modern age of both parents having to work automatically makes life harder for middle class people too. The parents are tired, the child doesn't really see the parents enough and has to fend for himself and thus you see another person being raised without the support they truly deserve. Elizabeth Warren showed the stats, both parents pretty much have to work in this day and age. We are in an age that only cares about economic growth and personal growth has to fall by the wayside as a consequence.

People always say to me here that I have a lot of opinions and that I don't do enough to back it up, but I think I make a very big statement in simply refusing to have children and therefore not contribute to any of this. I think the system is a sick one and it isn't fair to raise children in a lottery of the future. I am not a rich man and so won't get drawn into a silly game of governments simply wanting people being born for their own ends. They do not consider the life of the child and their emotional wellbeing.

It used to be that higher education was an automatic indicator of success. People with advanced college degrees were pretty much assured a smooth road in life. But there's been a gradual shift over the years. Technical institutes or trade schools have become an alternative to those who do not wish to, or have the means, to pursue a traditional college education. To that, add the ones with little advanced formal education who nevertheless have an innate mind for business, and you have yourself a group of people who weren't necessarily born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but become successful nonetheless. By the same token, you have those spoiled brats from wealthy families who study at renowned universities for all the wrong reasons, and end up being miserable, unfulfilled human beings.

That being said, it is obviously an advantage to be born into wealth. If you choose to do so, you can attend the school of your choosing and you have the connections to make life easier for you. The problem lies in that many of those wealthy parents aren't necessarily good parents, and thus neglect to give their spoon-fed kids what they need the most, a sense of self worth, human decency, and independence.

You aren't even posting to give an honest viewpoint. Most children are born through accidents and therefore are born poor and with daft parents. At least the well off can alleviate the suffering to some degree with financial manipulation and that is what happens. Sure, the boy designed for the foreign office is a miserable git, but he gets a job in the foreign office. Little Tim at the comprehensive, no doubt he has a good future at the meat counter.

What's not honest about providing a complete picture, not just a slice of humanity? Most children are born through accidents? It's no wonder you want no children of your own. I guess if you're including in your statement the children born to indigenous tribes, and maybe the children born to underaged, ignorant 14-year old girls.... statistics may support your claim.

What's not honest is brushing off the sector, no matter how minor, of children that regardless of socioeconomic status, become productive, well-adjusted adults.

Most children are born through accidents. It is just common sense and existence seems to provide the truth to that and moreso in modern life.

I think what is dishonest is the notion that those more well off don't succeed. It just isn't true. Most of those in big business and government are from elitist origins and the rest of us aren't. That is just reality. Most of us are born to fail and fail we do. Don't sugarcoat that with middle ground.