> Turning wealth into wealth is not an accomplishment.

Where do you draw the line?

How is the work of doubling the wealth received as inheritance different from doubling the wealth of a client?

Can’t agree more. Taking about inequality while looking at those who have more than you is never going to work for me. Her opinion would have been more interesting if she had written about how privileged she is compared to the vast majority of the world population.

The author is of course mostly right but forgets to address the fact that she is also a privileged (even before getting married) when compared to the vast majority of the world population. So yes, we live in a world were a lot of who we will be is predetermined at birth.

I think that comparisons to most of the world population are irrelevant. Telling someone who is struggling in a developed country that somewhere across the world many people have it worse - this doesn't help anyone.

That's a surprisingly common attitude in my experience - "Even poor people in the USA live great compared to [historical serfs, people starving in afghanistan, (what i imagine it was like for) my grandparents, etc.]" . . . with the usually unspoken follow-on that [therefore it's fine to ignore their plight].

Yeah it's a really reactionary attitude! Most people who say it though aren't really able to articulate the why it matters. Because they clearly at the same time think lots of poverty related issues, like homelessness, are issues we need to solve.

It doesn't help their struggle, but it does provide a wider frame for their laments.

My hypothetical friend was complaining that he will only inherit $5M from his parents, because they made some bad investments, when he should really be getting $15M.

Does no one have a right to tell that person to stop complaining and accept what they have? After all, how does it help my hypothetical friend that some people happen to be struggling more than he is?

The difference is that your friend has his basic needs more than covered and he’s living a good life either way. That’s when perspective helps. But you can’t say the same thing about a minimum wage worker in the US for example - they’ll struggle and telling them that they’re in the top n % worldwide doesn’t help at all.

Pretty much all Americans have their basic needs more than covered and are living a good life either way, compared to someone in a favela outside Rio.

No, that’s my entire point. When we’re talking about covering basic needs you can’t add “compared to” at the end. They’re either covered or they aren’t.

What basic needs aren't covered for Americans?

Our poorest people are also our fattest, so it isn't food.

Less than .2% of our population is homeless, so it isn't shelter. And there are state and privately run shelters for those .2%.

Health care is state-provided and free if you have too low of an income, so it isn't health care.

So...what is it exactly?

American exceptionalism relies on ignoring developed nations and comparing to the worst developed most poorly run places on the planet.

> are Americans still logging into online banking with a username and password?

For financial institutions identity verification of existing and new customers is a way more complex topic than most people realize. Fraud is an issue but so it’s friction. If it’s too hard to login or to open a new account, people will use/move to a different service. So in the US institutions use “invisible tools” to authenticate users and minimize the risks. Third party services collect huge amounts of user data which is then used to verify customers’ identities in a probabilistic way. (For instance the odds that a fraudster is logging in into your bank account from your phone and from an IP that you have used numerous times in the past are very low) So while the impression is that only a username and a pw are used, that’s not the case.

So in short: security is not the only goal of the financial services available to the masses. The goal is finding a balance between security and friction.

Not really. You just need to use the apps specific pw that you can obtain from your account security page. I just did this for a bunch of Gmail accounts that have aliases setup to send out from custom domain email address. The only change is that you have to enable 2fa to obtain an app specific pw that you then use to setup the alias or to log in into your google mail via the less secure app of your choice. Note that there is no need for a phone number to setup 2fa as you can instead use the option of one time login codes and then validate access from your phone using any google app such as the gmail.

I just did this for a bunch of Gmail accounts that have aliases setup to send out from custom domain email address. So yes, You can still use less secure apps and set up gmail aliases as long as you enable 2fa and obtain an app specific pw that you then use to setup the alias or to log in into your google mail via the less secure app of your choice. Note that there is no need for a phone number to setup 2fa as you can instead use the option of one time login codes and then validate access from your phone using any google app such as the gmail.

1999: https://www.atomicsky.com/

In your user profile you saved the wrong linkedin link = you are unreachable.

TYVM! I usually delete it after a week or so from one of these posts and then add again at the beginning of each month.

There is no quarantine that will work in this case. The bird has a different immune system from the local fauna and could be carrying parasites/viruses/etc that live in harmony with the bird but that would be deadly to the local species.