Yes, I know thinking work can be as hard as physical work - I've done both - but I know too many people who will want to equate acquisition of wealth with virtue or hard work. Especially if the majority of people they see that have acquired wealth or power "look like them", while most of the poor folks look like others.
The norm when it comes to a stereotype of the top of the social hierarchy is a older, white male who is a wealthier member of the status quo. A lot of white men feel that's their position to 'work' towards in life; to be a Big Fish in their own pond. That's their rightful inheritance. Everyone else has their own normative place; women are mommies to take care of their emotional needs, darker people are tools; the fungible servants, artisans, physical laborers that appear when needed and just disappear after they aren't needed, and, of course, any children are proof of manhood, mini-mes to mold into whatever the pater familias wants them to be.
It's a sad, narrow existence that creates confusion and resentment, especially among the less wealthy white males who fret that they're somehow being cheated. Not to mention the wealthy white males who continue to lie to themselves about how much they had to "sacrifice" to have millions in their personal accounts by the time they were 35 or 40.
Most couldn't have gotten where they were without a lot of help from family (revenue sharing from a family business, education support, or inherited wealth), the Government (low cost training/educational support, training or bonuses/benefits from prior military service, loans and grants), or some other form of network investing in them in the first place.
Haele
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