While I've disagreed with most of your posts on this thread (or any thread

) you're mostly right.
Randomness by nature is the variable. With a few caveats though.
Folks who work hard, stay in school or change careers the second they perceive they're in a dying business have an
edge over those who don't "do the right thing". That's not to say the drunk driving doctor won't wind up in Riker's for killing a pedestrian or that the poor black kid won't actually make the NFL but most paths run to form with little variance.
If you polled people who grew up in a wealthy suburb, rarely would one wind up living on the streets. By the same token very few kids from the inner city would be millionaires. We're truly
dealt cards.
There's many irony's present in America.
Ghetto kids since the 60's have been preached at, "you don't need to work shit jobs for the man." Now we wonder why Mexican's are swimming across the border to clean dishes while Black kid's are selling drugs.
People who's homes have
sextupled in value are pissed their insurance has
tripled.
People complain about soaring health care costs while shelling out 40 bucks to see a crap movie.
There's good reason why Michael Corleone and Tony Soprano are the most popular fictional characters in America the past few decades. As a society we
identify with men who push the limits in pursuit of the good life.
Without doubt being exposed to materialism 24/7 has tarnished society's expectations. Cheap money has further fueled the religion. With 1.9% factory lease incentives and the like we've become horrifyingly bourgeois. We feign concern. I have an ULTRA liberal neighbor who rails about the dangers of global warming while complaining that "Bush's war" has caused high gas prices. Meanwhile and I kid you not, his driveway consists of 2 SUV's and a pickup truck. There's a Gore voter for you.
John Edward's in many ways
personifies America.
We're vapid and faithless. We lack introspection yet everyone is a
wise guy when it comes to pointing out the flaws in others. ET is filled with Bush sux, Bernanke sux, Greenspan sucked worse, Pelosi sux, Vic sux, Taleb sux yet no one ever has the stone's to say I suck too. No sir, society will never collectively say it's OUR greed and self serving paranoia that drives politics
and issues. I'm pure, you're not and we wonder why it's dog eat dog. It's because we're cornered by our own flaws.
Quote from ZZZzzzzzzz:
I don't blame the government, I hold them responsible to fulfill their promises.
" All I can say is, again, that thinking this way is what will hold you back and keep you where you are, while thinking just the opposite is what brings most to higher success, standards and achievements.
Unplug the Tony Robbins babble from your brain and just try to understand life as it comes...
There a plenty of examples of people who work hard, have positive mental attitudes, yet life shits all over them. There plenty of examples of people who just lucked into situations,
This idea (fallacious of course) that it all comes down to hard work and attitude is just nonsense.
It doesn't all come down to that, it comes down to many different variables.
Shoot, if Warren Buffett says it has a lot to do with luck, then I'll take his word for it...unless you have made more than Buffett, try to speak for yourself, not preach to others...
Any fool who is a trader knows that he can work just as hard, have just as gung ho or positive an attitude, but if the markets aren't moving, he ain't gonna make squat.
The self determination crap that is generally spewed only by those who were successful is just utter projection of what they think worked for themselves.