Income Inequality vs. Ability Inequality

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Any of my regular readers know that I think income inequality is a smoke screen. Two words designed to encourage social division between the haves and the have not’s.

You’ve got it, you couldn’t have gotten it honesty, and that means I’m entitled to my fair share of it.

How Do Haves Become Haves?

You’ve achieved the American dream. You can put a roof over your head, food on the table and pay your bills with a little left over.

How does that happen in today’s highly competitive world? Why do some people rise to the top while others just tread water waiting for the entitlement rescue ship?

The main reason is ability inequality not income inequality.

The haves have done the work — the have not’s have not done the work.

There’s Classroom Knowledge and There’s Street Knowledge

Success in the S.T.E.M. disciplines requires many years of formal education. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are not easily learned on your own.

Although Abraham Lincoln did teach himself trigonometry.

But if you learn a skill like welding, or over the road truck driving, in a few months you’ll make as much or more than many of the STEM folks above.

Knowledge, skill and experience have value to an employer.

Ignorance, or lack of knowledge, lack of a marketable skill, and lack of experience are much harder to sell.

How much you know will have a direct bearing on how much you’re worth to someone else. To be paid more by some government feel good edict hurts both employee and employer.

Our Goals In School

When I started school, the first order of business was to get me reading, then language and how to use it, and finally math and the sciences.

There is a progression to learn things.

The more I read the better I got at reading and understanding how language is used to communicate.

Becoming a have is no different. You acquire both skills and knowledge.

If you want to play the piano you can read book after book but sooner or later you’re going to have to start tickling those keys.

Are you willing to put in the time it would take to reduce the so-called income inequality gap?

If you were able to improve your skills to the point you could earn an additional $10,000 dollars per year would you still look at the rich with a jaundiced eye?

Or would you begin to get the message that it’s you, not the haves, who have value.

Or would you start demeaning those who are where you used to be for not putting in the effort you put in?

Some Final Thoughts

When a child is trying to walk and falls down 50 times he or she doesn’t say, “Maybe walking isn’t for me.”

If we have a dream or goal to better ourselves it has to be strong enough to overcome the many falls we'll take along the way.

Otherwise we resign ourselves to staying in one place and usually that place becomes less and less desirable as time goes on.

How much would you like to make and what would it take for you to get there? What would you be willing to give up to get it?

If it’s not something meaningful or worthwhile it’s doubtful you’ll make it happen. But what if you knew that your goal or dream would change your life and others for the better.

Could anything stop you?

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