Quote:
Originally Posted by plib
Obviously whatever you studied at university it did not include irony.
It really helps when criticizing someone to actually read what they have written, preferably before putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. If you could point out where exactly I said that choices in life have little to do with success I'd greatly appreciate it. I realize my reading skills may be faulty but this is what I see when I review what I wrote:
Please show me the word success in that quote? Please show me anywhere in the post where I talk about success? I specifically mentioned becoming part of the 1%. That is a very different matter from success, as normally defined. Many people have successful careers, not many of those become wealthy enough to be in the top 1%.
I am a little lost as to how to respond to this, particularly as it bears no relationship whatever to anything I said and appears to be the product of an inadequate comprehension of what was actually written combined with an incoherent thought process in compiling the response. So I'll just pass it by and leave it in peace.
Again, the issue is not earnings but wealth. Two very different metrics. I'm very pleased that your hard work and education (apart from the unfortunate omission on the irony front) have benefited you. It's what I would expect and, again, if you actually read what was written and took the time to read the article, I wrote nothing which would conflict with that. If you are in the top 10% of wealth owners in Oz then good for you, if you are in the top 1% then you should get off here and go cruise the South Seas in a 250 foot yacht. If you can't afford a 250 foot yacht then maybe you could have worked harder on that whole parent thing, or studied golf at college. The leap isn't impossible, just very difficult.
That's OK. I seem to have learned to make allowances for what you know, and what you're prepared to research. |
"Obviously whatever you studied at university it did not include irony."
You are correct. I did not learn about irony in University. The Universities that I attended assumed that most of those enrolling would have learned something so basic at a much earlier age. I fully undertand irony but apparently you don't. I didn't REALLY think that you were supposing that we choose our parents - my response was ironic. (Possibly a little sarcastic.)
"It really helps when criticizing someone to actually read what they have written, preferably before putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. If you could point out where exactly I said that choices in life have little to do with success I'd greatly appreciate it. I realize my reading skills may be faulty but this is what I see when I review what I wrote:"
I read what you had written very carefully, in fact I found it so difficult to believe that I read it again. You quite clearly stated that the majority of choices have little to do with success.
"For the vast majority the choices you make in life, other than the choice of your parents, actually have very little to do with whether you are part of the 1% or the 99%"
Do you not recall posting this?
"Please show me the word success in that quote"?
Ah, we are going to play semantics are we? That's ok, I don't mind a bit of game playing - I usually do well.
Do you not consider being ranked in the top percentile among wage earners to count as being successful? Success is variously defined by reputable dictionaries (i.e., those that are not Webster's derivations) as: "accomplishing an intended pupose, a state of prosperity or fame, achieving a goal". Now, if a person obtains a job in order to earn an income, and if they do well enough in that position to earn an income that is ranked among the top one percent of incomes, would you not regard that as success? If not, how would you regard it? Blind luck? A failure?
I truly doubt that many who earn an income in the top one percent do so without making a great many very good choices. We are not talking about inheriting wealth or winning a lotery, but earning. You claim that choices make little difference.
BTW, I do (well our family does) have a yacht, a very nice ketch, but it is nowhere near two hundred and fifty feet in length, it is only sixty-two feet. Just the right size to be able to single-hand it if necessary.