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Economic inequality cannot be explained by individual bad choices, study finds (phys.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A global study led by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and published in the journal Scientific Reports finds that economic inequality on a social level cannot be explained by bad choices among the poor nor by good decisions among the rich. Poor decisions were the same across all income groups, including for people who have overcome poverty.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Does this mean my bootstraps aren’t enough?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 years ago (2 children)

@Aesculapius It's funny, tragic, and sad that modern Republicans started using that phrase unironically. It actually means the opposite of what they think it does, it's clearly impossible to do:

Back in the 1800s, the expression “pull oneself up by the bootstraps” meant the opposite of what it does now. Then it was used mockingly to describe an impossible act.
An 1834 publication ridiculed a claim to have built a perpetual-motion machine by saying that the inventor might next heave himself over a river “by the straps of his boots.” An 1840 citation scoffs that something is “as gross an absurdity as he who attempts to raise himself over a fence by the straps of his boots.” source

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's impossible, and yet the bootstraps narrative drives out good policy.

That's certainly a take of the author... "Yea, it's impossible. But... so?"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You're misunderstanding, the NYT is anti-Republican. The author means "yet Republicans can still somehow use this impossible claim to drive out good policy". Notice how it says good policy, not they goodly drive out policy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

todayilearned material here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

My favorite part about this saying is that it originated as silly way to describe an impossible task (getting oneself out of quicksand by pulling on your own hair). Braindead capitalists completely missed the point and adopted it as an actual rallying cry in one of the greatest instance of irony that I can think of.