Subject: Re: Qualities for success
I agree with most of what Wendy said. She did, however, post a sentence which may be caused by human nature:

As a society, we are pretty good at transferring money to the poor, but we’re not very good at nurturing the human capital they would need to get out of poverty. As a result, we do an OK job supporting people who are in long-term poverty but a poor job of helping them lift out of poverty. ...
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Human nature is, indeed, hard-wired into most of us. Every culture in the world sings, every one dances, exhibits ancestor worship in one form or another, believes in spirits, exhibits the ability to have "faith" (something which can neither be proven or disproven, but which can affect people strongly enough to both take lives as well as give up their own - can be nearly anything which ends with the letters "ism" if properly spun by those adept at manipulating human nature), parental/familial protective feelings and frequently that there is a race of "little people" who stay just out of sight but who can act mischievously, etc.

In that context, while many people think squirrels are cute, many think rats are terrible - so, other than one has a bushy tail, what make one elicit the opposite emotions than the other? Overly simplistically, we compete with rats over the same food and living space and we don't with squirrels.

While due to societal pressures – whether to “do what is right” for our fellow countrypeople or out of fear of destructive rioting if we don’t, there is currently an implied social contract to keep our poor from starving to death or getting riled up enough to set our cities on fire and loot from businesses.

For the wealthy, getting tax breaks and certificates for “doing good” boosts their ego. That said, giving them free education – especially by putting the “disadvantaged” into schools, but no longer having space for the spawn of the wealthy, by favoring their start-up businesses in ways that allows them to compete with established firms, encouraging them, once they have succeeded to move into neighborhoods alongside of long-term denizens goes a long way towards, from a human nature based emotional standpoint turning those nearly domesticated squirrels into rats.

Look, I am more aware than many that a union electrician can earn six-figures a year (in addition to about the same in benefits) without a college education. There ARE jobs for those whose final education is an apprentice program which puts them into the middle class. Similarly, the military prepares some for the ability to gain good employment upon leaving the service (airline pilot comes to mind). That said, for a number of reasons, which in the quest for brevity, I won’t go into here, a “college education” (or higher) is the key to getting your resume looked at and a “professional degree” (doctor, lawyer, engineer, etc.) tends to be far more sought after by employers than degrees in advanced basket-weaving that people take so that their resumes are not put into the circular file without being read. In the midst of this are “vocational” degrees awarded by community colleges which rightfully prepare people for many mid-ranked jobs (which do not compete with those running the country.

We live in a country which still has a significant level of bigotry and bias and, while it’s OK to do good deeds, it is also seen as “normal” for the people at the top not to be comfortable with those in other demographic groups to succeed enough to compete with them. The fact that “the others” outnumber them significantly justifies (according to human nature) their doing everything possible (including cheating) to maintain a status quo of relative social position.

Jeff