: What you omit---like Stuart Gort before you---is that capital is predicated upon a very definite ratio of bosses to employees. If everyone 'pulled themselves up by the bootstraps' (like you) and became capitalists (as no doubt you will soon), then capitalism COULD NOT exist.That's very true. But what is also true is that when given the freedom to do this, the mass percentage of this free population do not make the choice to force themselves past the comfortable lifestyle afforded them by their alledged miserable, menial, and meaningless jobs. Capitalism would seem to me to be predicated on a realistic assessment of the diversity of aspiration present in humanity. Your position assumes and expects far more virtue and character in the average person than actually exists. When you say, "If everyone 'pulled themselves up by the bootstraps'", you assume everyone can or that everyone will. We know that not everyone can and we also know that not everyone will given current circumstances, though they are free to do so. You want to change those circumstances to provide equal opportunity but you ignore the baser aspects of human behavior which result in the manifest unequality of mankind. Equal opportunity might be possible. Equal outcome will be never possible. The freedom to pursue one's dreams should be venerated and the opportunity to freely pursue them should be codified into law. Guess what? They already are! It's just not easy to do it and you want life to be far simpler.
I'm curious what thoughts would occupy your mind if you were born at a different time in a different place - like maybe 1875 in the Ohio river valley. I believe hard work would sum it up. If you were inclined to think in terms of LTV and job rotation then, you'd end up a lot hungrier than you are now.
Stuart Gort
