John Heilemann: "The benefits of being rich come to those who work hard"

[tularetom]

9. Actually the benefits of being rich come to those whose grandparents worked hard

I never worked harder in my life than when I was a teenager. Baling hay, removing trees and digging out stumps, cutting and splitting firewood, delivering propane were the ways I made money. And I never made more than about 20 bucks a day.

Actually my maternal grandparents did have a little dough, but most of it went to the care facility where my grandma spent the last 15 years of her life.

But when I went to my 25th HS reunion in 1984, I noticed that the people who seemed to be the most well off were the kids whose parents were well off as well. The rest of us were pretty much in the same financial strata that we occupied as kids.

Upward social mobility in the US is more or less a myth.