Readers of The Wall Street Journal

~ MaryG

How does your mindset affect your financial success?

One of the things that people who are on the other side of the political spectrum from me (my father for one) love to say is that there’s no other country in the world where people can just “have an idea” and make millions of dollars. They say that’s a uniquely American thing.

Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal that doubles down on this idea that America is great because anyone who works hard can get rich. I’ve also noticed that these same people tend to say Europe is poor and declining. “They don’t even realize how poor they are,” I heard one Conservative acquaintance (another white man) say.

I’m all for people working hard and doing well as a result, but this idea that everyone should just “have an idea” (like opening a hot dog stand) and through sheer grit and a positive attitude make a fortune seems…naive. And also, given who tends to espouse it, the height of privilege.

2 thoughts on “Readers of The Wall Street Journal”

  1. Unfortunately I cannot read the article but it sounds like it espouses ‘the American Dream” which I’m sure for some exists and others aspire to.
    The comment “They don’t even realise how poor they are,” makes me smile. In my humble opinion it comes down to what do you value in life:-money, family, work life balance?
    Us Europeans look across the “pond” and cannot believe the working environment we see and read about. Europeans have far more paid holiday, a far better work/life balance, extensive maternity/paternity rights, paid sick leave, in the Uk free healthcare for all etc etc.
    Wherever you live in the world there will always be rich and poor and most of us fall somewhere in the middle of the two

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