A rant about the wealth gap.

I keep hearing that if everyone works hard, they’ll be rich. That if everyone is equal, then no one will strive for success. These are just a couple examples, but it seems to me that a growing number of people see hard work as a way to get wealthy as an inherent fact of life.<br><br>Now, I’ll stipulate that no one is going to be as wealthy as Jeff Bezos or Warren Buffet. However, it seems that people believe that wealth is only a matter of hard work. That the people who are wealthy, are there because of their efforts, and the poor are poor because they’re lazy.<br><br>I’m going to call B.S. on that. I’m a hard worker, I’m very successful in my career, and I make a good living. But, I am not going to be wealthy, no matter how hard I work, because the deck is stacked against me. There are so many people who work hard, and are successful, and yet, they’re not wealthy. For those who are born into poverty, there’s only a handful of ways to get wealthy. You can be a business owner. You can work as an engineer or doctor, etc. The problem is, even if you work hard, and become successful, the wealth you create doesn’t belong to you. Most of it goes to your employer, who is probably some old rich guy who was born into wealth.<br><br>The people who are born wealthy have access to opportunities that others don’t. If you’re poor, you won’t have access to good schools, so even if you study your ass off, you’re not going to get the same opportunities that someone from a wealthy background would. There’s nothing wrong with working hard, but if the game is stacked against you from the start, hard work just isn’t enough.<br><br>I’ll end with something my grandfather once said. “Life isn’t a game where everyone has the same chances to win. It’s more like a game where some people get to pick their cards, while others have their cards picked for them.”