Also it was terrible that the message of his speech was that if you are successful, you just got lucky. That you aren't smarter or more talented than anyone else just because you are successful.
Maybe I am too young, but all my life I have noticed that I have been successful simply by virtue of the fact that I am smarter than my peers. My brothers grew up in the exact same circumstances as me, obviously, but why have I been exponentially more successful than them at every point in my life? The only explanation is that I am smarter.
But the hidden message here is one that permeates throughout our entire big government society right now - that if you're poor and unsuccessful, you're gonna stay that way. If you're not successful because you are smarter, but instead because of circumstances, what does that say about the unsuccessful people? That they should give up trying to be unsuccessful because they can't match the rich guy's circumstances? That no matter how smart they are, the best they can hope for is the rich guy paying more taxes so that you get more handouts?
The message SHOULD be that if you're smarter and more hard-working, yes, you can be successful, no matter your circumstances. That is the American Dream, isn't it?
Maybe that's what the message should be, but it's not our reality. Statistically, the thing that best predicts your wealth is.....your parents' wealth. Sure, we've got plenty of exceptions (see Barack Obama vs. his brother in Kenya), but it correlates far better than anything else- at least that we can measure.
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Congratulations to SuperNiceDog, Guru Winner, who was smart enough to pick
your 7 time champion, Link.