Wealthy Families, Their Offspring, and the Alberta and Chinese Boom
Psychological studies have shown that much of your person is shaped by your experiences/upbringing by the time you’re 13. Afterwards, there is still some influence by your surroundings, but the impact diminishes. So it’s really a case by case basis whether privileged parents lead to privileged children.
Why “the rich get richer” quote is true.
Wealthy families can afford to place their offspring in elite private schools or other academic and social environments where the children are surrounded by more ambitious, academic, hard-working upper class mentality (on the most part). Most of these wealthy families likely came from privileged backgrounds where wealth was obtained through education, ambition, creativity (not just seeking a job as a only means to an end), and the confidence in risk appetite. They’re taught they must become somebodys one day and not just nobodys. In turn they to grow to become more academically, career, and financially literate than average. Parental contributions only have so much of an impact, especially if you count with your fingers how many hours out of the day parents actually spend with their children, and having one to two voices of direct influence versus thousands over the years. For the working class, maybe a couple hours in the morning, and a few in the evening and night; <=50% of the time.
Conversely the western stereotypical mentality growing up is to just sit at home with your thumb up your ass and party until you got nothing left. Then eventually figure it out down the road. Have a bunch of kids you can’t afford emotionally or financially. Make a career out of chasing dumb girls/boys than figuring how to make a budget and a career. To become the norm rather than the exception; be what you are now rather than trying to become something better everyday. Hate those better off rather than learn from and exceed them. Of course the eastern models are not without problems, such as that found in ultra-capitalist, dog-eat-dog, “if you’re not Ivy-League, doctor, or investment banker material, you are useless” China.
It’s kind of like raising a puppy, especially a bigger emotional dog like a German Shepherd. How he/she grows to be a dog is heavily influenced by his/her surroundings during puppyhood. Do it wrong and you’ll have an antisocial, aggressive, unfriendly dog who don’t know how to listen to you. Do it right and you’ll have a loyal, happy, friendly, smart dog.
Fast forward years down the road, and you will find the privileged/established in similar groups.
The last recent generation model of upbringing for a lot of foreign families, especially the ones from Asia, was to work hard for, and be rational with the money. It’s just the Asian boom of the last decade to two got to their heads as foreigner slobs threw their money around, had no respect for Canadians and other non-Asians, spoiled their kids who grew to be troublemakers, etc.
The Outdated Mentality of Alberta’s Oil Patch
Spending some years in the Alberta oil patch, which grew massively along with the Chinese boom, you see it a lot here also. Once in the past people were taught to be ambitious, hard-working, and be creative, especially in the 1980s oil collapse and double digit interest rate environment. Then people just sought easy money such as $100,000/year laborer jobs and financed pickup trucks one after another – often of the same level dollar value – and wasted their spare money on bad women, strippers, escorts, drugs, etc. Instead of chasing a career or contribution to the economy through innovation, entrepreneurship, investing, business, etc., most only sought the job with a low barrier of entry but satisfactory short-term result. The workforce never really learned how to diversify its investments and human capital, or manage them, when it had it good, hence the unemployment, emotional, and financial distress issues faced by the general populace today.
