Nice post, well put. It’s difficult to argue with your pointsMaybe it's rude of me to butt in on your discussion with West Dids but I feel compelled to comment on this.
I don't know your background so I wouldn't dream of suggesting which category you fall into but my experience of well off / wealthy people is they are one of three types.
1. Exceptional people who despite their backgrounds have overcome multiple obstacles to be successful.
2. Sociopaths who by being completely amoral have managed to exploit opportunities and people that most people would baulk at doing so.
3. People who through accident of birth carry a significant amount of capital (social and/or financial) into their adulthoods which they are able to exploit to their benefit. Not necessarily a single large piece of capital but lots of smaller pieces that add up to a significant whole.
My experience is that there are not that many of the first two types, the vast majority are of the third type. Of the third type there are a proportion who understand the advantages conferred on them but a much bigger group simply have no concept of the often small cumulative privileges they have been the beneficiary of and simply assume it is down to their abilities, hard work and appetite for risk. They don't do this maliciously it's simply a function of their lived experience. I have no issue with this however when people are presented with evidence to support this hypothesis their reaction is telling.
With respect I think your conception of how risk appetite works and it's role in success is hugely selective in its view. I say this as someone who built up a surplus in his own business and has reinvested it in a high risk/reward project albeit one where wealth creation wasn't the only end game.
Everyone has their own values systems of the ways in which it is or isn't acceptable to make money and what is an acceptable level of risk. I think these things vary wildly depending on your circumstances and your experience of the world to date.
I am from a working class, one parent,(father died when I was very young)3 kids family
Bought up in terraced, outside loo and tin bath, 11+ failure, left school with only a few qualifications so I think we can discount your options 2 +3 as applying to me.
My point about risk is/ was you have to take it at sometime in life if you want to get on.
perhaps as I got older my risks were more calculated.
Yes some of my wealth is down to luck, but I only ever risked what I could afford to lose. My business was always there to put food on the table and rebuild the pot, if needed.
I did my last share trade in March this year and the share price has since tumbled.
I now only invest in Land near other housing developments that don’t have planning permission at the moment.
The problem appears to be with some of the same old faces on the politics thread is they hate any sort of success stories.
I can see why there are social mobility issues within the classes.
I started off as working class and but am now middle class.
The classes tend to stay within their own social strata as on social occasions the middle classes tend to avoid the working classes fearing the sort of reaction that’s given on here to anybody declaring they have a bob or two and not ashamed of it.
Because of the chip on the shoulder they miss out on lots of jobs, business opportunities, advice, help etc.which social mobility brings with it
Politically I am seen on here as some sort of Nigel Farage but in reality I see good and bad in all Parties and post Thatcher , just let the politicians decide what ever and just work round it
I think there are many on the left who are expecting miracles if Labour get in but apart from a bit of tweaking at the edges they are going to be severely disappointed when they see same old under a different name.
There just isn’t the spare money out there to do anything radical or please everyone.