Stop Pretending You’re Not Rich
<i>&gt;The rhetoric of “We are the 99 percent” has in fact been dangerously self-serving, allowing people with healthy six-figure incomes to convince themselves that they are somehow in the same economic boat as ordinary Americans, and that it is just the so-called super rich who are to blame for inequality. [...] The strong whiff of entitlement coming from the top 20 percent has not been lost on everyone else.</i><p>Ok, since it&#x27;s not clear from the title, Richard V. Reeves is directing his tirade towards people making $100k+ and not the Bill Gates and Warren Buffetts of the USA.<p>Since many HN readers earn $100k+, let&#x27;s ask ourselves:<p>Do you feel &quot;rich&quot;?  Richard Reeves is calling you out as the class of the &quot;rich&quot; and to stop denying it.  You agree?<p>Do programmers and sysadmins feel like getting the job and six-figure salary was from luck or the result of a rigged system?  (Attending the 4-year college, whiteboard interviews, etc, was &quot;rigged&quot; in your favor.)<p>If you want to live in a neighborhood that prevents disassembled cars jacked up on cinder blocks, it doesn&#x27;t really mean you want a nice-looking environment.  Instead, you&#x27;re just using the rules as a smoke screen to keep out low-income blacks and Latinos.  You agree?<p>If you take advantage of 529 deductions for your kids&#x27; education and mortgage deductions, these are financial games to keep the low-income people from achieving what you&#x27;ve accomplished.<p>Richard Reeves says you should feel guilty?  Do you feel guilty?<p>EDIT ADD:  Since none of the replies (so far) directly engage with what I was trying to ask, I&#x27;ll try to pose the question more directly:  Do HN readers agree with Mr Reeves that _you_ are to be blamed for the low-income people not moving up the ladder?