The American Dream is a Lie 

Success is sweet, but the secret is sweat. (General Norman Schwarzkopf).
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure. (Colin Powell)
The hard work definitely paid off and hard work always does. (Gabby Douglas)
We can spend the next hour putting up inspirational quotes from famous people about how working hard will lead to success. We’re told at work that we’ll get promoted if we work harder. We’re told in sports that if we just train more we’ll win that medal. And we’re even told that if we just put ourselves out there enough, we’ll find romantic partners that will fulfill all of our wildest dreams. This idea of success rewarding those who work for it is called meritocracy. It’s the idea that rewards are merit based, rather than based on something else like who you happen know, who your parents are, or just dumb luck. And this idea is both incredibly appealing and the foundation of what most of us think of as the American Dream.
But is America really a meritocracy? Are we really rewarded solely based on how much effort we put into our lives? Welcome to Data Demystified. I’m Jeff Galak, and in this episode we’re going to look at data about success and see what it says about just how meritocratic our country is. And in case you can’t stick around for the details, the short answer is that our country DOES have some meritocratic features, but they are far less robust than you might think. In this episode, I’m going to try and provide the intuition to help you understand if and where meritocracy exists in our society. And if you stick around to the end, I’ll even provide a partial solution to how we can make our country more meritocratic, something I think all of us likely
Link to Pew Report: www.pewtrusts....
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