What I wrote is not at all insulting to the hard working people who are struggling to get ahead. There is nothing wrong with saying hard work CAN lead to riches (and where did I say it was always true? Did not the entire rest of the post address how hard it has become to get ahead? You really cherry picked that quote, man).

I think your argument is dismissive of the many, many people who’ve worked their asses off to get where they are today. They aren’t all trust-fund babies and we shouldn’t assume they are lucky to be where they are. The moment we stop believing hard work is the route to success is the moment we fail as a nation.

I think we can address the problems faced by the many Americans who are sturggling without resorting to bashing the notion that hard work can and should pay off. The goal should be to make hard work worthwhile for everyone.

The good news is: effort still pays in America. Make yourself valuable and you will be well compensated.

This is a cliche. It is not always true or even true a majority of the time any longer. The argument would be much stronger if it wasn’t for the incredible discrepancies between highly educated Americans working for Wall Street Banks, the financial giants in general and truly gifted engineers, scientists and educators. The reason that the majority of Americans have caught on and do not believe that their futures or those of their children are full of hope and sunshine is that even with all the hard work in the world their salaries for the majority have stayed flat after inflation for years. To claim otherwise is to tell them that they’ve been being lazy and not working hard this entire time salaries haven’t kept pace with inflation. Every Republican who spouts this line is insulting the working American they’re talking to. Then they wonder why the numbers of working Americans identifying as Republicans is declining.