World Poverty Rate Halved since 1990.

[kandrathe]

This is one reason why the benefits of privilege can't just be measured by outcomes. Risk behaviour changes based on unobserved second-best options.

What you say is true. It would be true then that in most things, like finding a place to live, those with some means have the luxury to be patient and wait for the "right" opportunity.

What you point out is also probably a flaw in the social safety net. We would probably agree that deprivation is a pretty horrible sword of Damocles held above the heads of the impoverished. Yet, as a society we use that threat to propel the otherwise able into productive lives (ergo, productive for whom?). The disabled are forced to suffer a miasma of red-tape in order to continuously prove their inability to work. One strange Midwestern value here is our "work ethic", which we tend to take for granted -- neither the idle rich, nor the idle poor, or idle anyone get much respect here.

We are in an era of statism. There are some vestiges in the US of individualism, but these are disappearing rapidly. Mom and pop shops cannot compete with State subsidized Walmart. Just as it is hard for the OECD nations to compete with a China, where much of their economic advantage is derived by State sponsorship, individuals cannot for long compete when the scales are tipped by massive state interventions.

As socialism creeps deeper into governments, it is fair to say, we all become dependents upon the engine of state for our survival. Perhaps for some more than others, but still, in macroeconomic terms, somewhere between 20% to 30% of US GDP is derived directly by government consumption, with perhaps another 30% to 50% indirectly influenced by subsidies or tax advantages. I've heard some talk of a base federal supplied "salary" -- that would be above the ~ $5000 which would be your EITC (Earned income tax credit) if you earned nearly zero (or a daily rate for a family of four of $3.42 which is still nearly double the rate of developing world).

It matters little what system we look at, the GINI coefficients for inequality are very bad for the capitalists like Russia, or China. The oligarchs and plutocrats abscond with their corrupt booty, just as it is in the US -- where the suburbs of Washington DC, comprise 7 of the top 10 richest counties in the USA.

I guess I would still say that in the face of this type of system, where everything is given a price tag, and everything is treated as a short term investment, it is most important to value yourself, and know what you are worth (to the system). I guess that is why in some way, Millennials are both rejecting this unsustainable circus we've erected over the last century, and benefiting from its social safety net.