All this I agree with. And they do have a chance, just as buying a lottery ticket gives you a chance. You have to be able to make sense of low probabilities to keep from sabotaging yourself with this, though.Mr. P wrote:Well, people honestly believe they have a chance to achieve that level of success by way of the myth of hard work paying off in the end. When in reality, there is no real chance to achieve more than being better off than your neighbor. Rarely will most become truly wealthy...if money and power is your ultimate goal.
I think that's why people support the decadence. That and maybe a little bit of indulgence in fantasy.
I was surprised last year to find out that owning a franchise takes a lot of money. Somehow I had the notion that if you were experienced in the field the world would take a gamble on you, allowing you to "buy on time" in essence. And I gather there is still a component of that, but the down payment (so to speak) is pretty steep.
I don't actually think capitalists are necessarily corrupt. But I do think that to enter the stratosphere of mega-millionaires you have to be kind of obsessive, and you have to buy into an ideology that says the money is what matters. If it was all about pleasing customers and providing value, that would be most excellent. Alas, it's also about vicious behavior toward competitors, and about putting profit ahead of people, and about "investing" in lobbying the politicians, and about "managing" public relations (by which I mean lying). So, since the "most successful" set the standard for that social class, their corruption will seep into the worldview of their ilk.