Question about what Obama just said.

[The Ghost of RubangB]

mrstickball said:

jv103 said:

mrstickball said:

Try going to college for 8 years, then working 16hrs a day on double shifts, then watching someone that does no work get paid close to what you do. You'll start to see things differently.

For an entire year, I woke up at 4am every weekday, worked 60hrs a week, and made $8.00hr + overtime. No benefits. It's called unskilled labor. You see, in an economy, some people do things that are more valuable than others. They have the ability to do, say, and understand things better than others. Because of this, they may be entitled to earn compensation that exeedes those that work the same number of hours, but did not put any time into education, to do a good job.

 

Italicized part: Really? Stock Brokers do something more valuable than, dentists, doctors, farmers or even contractors/builders?

Bold: This type of rationalization typically comes when we try to explain inequity and chance. In reality differences are probably marginal, and most of what we deem success is not on individual ability but rather fortune/chance. Of course if you believe that their is some sort of supreme order or logic to the world, then of course that would entail chaos and would be very frightening.

 

Stock brokers help allocate investor funding in projects that can be critical for the development of a nation. Dentists, builders, doctors and farmers may rely on investments to start up their practices, as they've most likely spent their money on education, or equipment for their field. You may not agree that stock brokers need paid real well (and I can agree with you that they're overpaid), but their market dictates that they can earn a lot.

So you think that Brett Farve being a better QB than Ryan Leaf was entirely up to fortune? Chance allows Pele to be a better football player than Kyle Patterson? Yes, fortune and chance may be in the case of some, but it's certainly not in the majority. If chance and fortune dictated life, then every nation in the world would be equal in development.

@bolded: what you're forgetting is that while DNA and birthplace are truly random and are absolutely dependent on fortune/chance, we still live live in a closed system where all the best actors are expected to move to Hollywood to make the most money, all the best programmers are expected to move to Silicon Valley to make the most money, and all the best athletes can make the most money in the U.S. as well.  The U.S. is a talent vacuum.

People are born with vocal cords that dictate singing ability and then move to where they can make the most money off of it.  Britney Spears is richer than me.  Does that mean she was a smarter businessperson than me, or that she was lucky enough to be born with nice tits, and vocal cords that are good enouogh?

TLDR;

Did John Holmes get rich for spending years in education crafting his acting talents, or was he born with it?