I fail to see where I said anything even remotely close to that.

You seem to be equating success with physically working hard or working like a slave long hours. Working hard or hard enough is no guarantee of success. Most brick layers work a hundred times harder than a programmer yet don't produce proportionally higher results.

Scenarios such as a single mother working 12.5 jobs to survive are often brought out to refute the sort of thing I am saying. Nonsense. You could tear those counter-arguments apart a million different ways. Yes, sometimes there's bad luck. Any civilized society ought to have assistance for those who truly need it. The "single mother with three jobs" scenario could very well be a candidate for such help.

You could also say that a lot of people are the result of a whole sequence of bad decisions. If your argument, then, is that all people are equal, well, you are wrong. At a popular vacation spot I've seen people jump off a bridge into the river below. Every year a few get killed or come out of their adventure paralyzed from the neck down when they hit the rocks below. They are morons, not victims. Yet they want me to support them in one way or another for the rest of their lives. People have to be responsible for their actions and the choices they make in life. I don't jump off that bridge because it is incredibly dangerous. I have also taugt my kids the same.

I can't answer the single mother scenario without details. Did she get knocked-up as a teenager, not a rape but just being irresponsible? Well, she is living with the results of having made that decision. Her family and community failed to teach her responsible behavior.

Was she raped? Did her husband of many years die? Let's help her. Forever? Nope. Get her an education so she can earn a decent wage through one job and attend to her kids properly.

You seem to want equal opportunity and equal outcomes for everyone in society. That's a nice Start Trek utopia society idea. The truth is that there are people who will never amount to anything due to a range of factors, from lack of education to addiction or something as simple as being really good at making bad decisions (and all of the above). As a comedian says: You can't fix stupid.

Those who got caught by unfortunate events and have fallen on hard times as a result deserve and ought to receive our collective help. The only requirement should be that they truly dedicate themselves to utilize the help to elevate their station and not burden society forever.

Those at the extremes (really old people with nowhere to go and other such examples) must also receive our support. However, we ougt to do everything possible to address the genesis of these problems whenever possible. How did they get there? How can we prevent that going forward?

And then there's the whole income inequality argument these articles want to bring about. I am sorry, but a single mother of two kids working three jobs just to stay afloat will not become a Donald Trump if she does not make changes. And yes, it would be horribly difficult to advance from that frame of reference. Horribly difficult. That still does nothing to justify the idea that everyone ought to be equal. I've had the experience of being down in my luck. Homeless. Not a dime to my name. No job. Lost everything in the span of about a year. It took me over ten years to get back to the point where I was able to buy a house. Yes, it was hard work, but it was also smart work.

Then there are the stories of immigrants who landed on our shores without a dime to their names and without even knowing the language. Lots of them end up doing very well, they raise wonderful families, send all their kids to college and end-up living far better than a lot of people born in the US.

The difference between success, failure or mediocrity is often measured in grit, determination, focus, a bit of luck and having the presence of mind to make use of it. My critique in the previous comment was primarily aimed at young people who waste their youth away with bullshit and are then convinced that the 1% or the 10% are there to oppress and keep them down.

We live in a fairly nice part of Los Angeles and I see these choices being made by some of my kid's friends and their families. We push our kids to pursue activities that will enrich their lives and provide them with intellectual advantages. My weekends are nearly 100% dedicated to this. I see other parents who spend nearly no time with their kids. Instead they plug the kids into their TV's, the Internet, playstations or xbox's and watch days, weeks and years go by. So, while my kids are doing two to three hours of homework every day to get ready to make something of themselves later in life other kids are becoming Call of Duty experts or other such bullshit. Now, if one of those girls ends-up knocked-up in high school and a single mother having to hold down three menial jobs to make ends meet, who's fault was it and why am I responsible for her? What right does she have to speak ill of those who, through having made sacrifices, achieved success in life?