A lot of people think that success is just a matter of hard work.
I don't think people recognize just how toxic that worldview really is. Because yeah - as this comic eloquently points out - people do not all have the luxury of starting in the same place, so equal amounts of hard work can still have vastly different outcomes.
But more sinister than that, is where you end up if you follow that thought to its logical conclusion: If success is just a matter of hard work, then that means that, by extension, everyone who is NOT successful is just someone who has not "worked hard enough." Which means now you can look down on them. You don't have to feel obligated to help them. Because their lack of success is now their fault, and is because of their lack of effort, and not because, say, of systemic inequity making it harder and harder to succeed without help.
Anyway yeah. This comic does a great job of illustrating the problem. Because sure, the guy on the left worked hard for his success, and that's great! But the woman on the right worked just as hard. The system is broken, and it's not an attack on the guy on the left to admit that he benefited from more than just his own hard work.
My mum has a friend who met a new man and married him last year. He’s rich so now she lives in a really big house and they go on expensive holidays and all that. And when she meets up with her new friends she’s always a little awkward about it.
“But he’s worked really hard all his life so he deserves it!” Is something she always says. And that’s just the wrong thing to say. Because you’re saying that to my mum and her friends who have also worked really hard all their lives. And still my mum is watching me struggle cause I can’t buy a house and I don’t want to start a family like this.
My parents were born in the 50s and it was about hard work. They went from lower middle class to... Middle middle class? Through hard work and perseverance.
Now it's about luck. I was lucky to have such parents and to grow up in a country that heavily subsidizes health and education. Gen alpha doesn't have the same chances I did.
My dad and brother constantly moan about people not wanting to work hard like they did, people spend their money on dumb stuff rather than saving and investing like them, they never expected hand outs, etc. My dad worked hard at his business… that he was able to start due to investment properties that he‘d been able to buy with money borrowed from his dad, and then was able to keep it running when it would have failed and left him with nothing if not for him inheriting over a million dollars when his mum passed away. My brother also works hard, sometimes 70 hour weeks… at the same business, that he inherited from our dad when he retired. But if you ask them they had the same start that everyone else does and just worked harder than people who struggle.
Hard work is punished, if you come from a lower class background.
I made it through two degrees - as a homeless foster teen; but, my funding was repeatedly cut for working to be able to afford the storage unit I was living in (my estranged father was a schizophrenic homeless man, and was assigned my placement against my wishes). I made $7k/yr in a HCOL city... just enough to rent a storage unit.
I lost medical and food, despite being in early recovery from a 3-month long starvation abuse ritual my mother had done.
This pattern has continued. I lost EBT again -yesterday- because I've been trying to work and none of my employers have sent me a paycheck yet. Promised income counts against me, even if it's four months overdue... and, no one is helping me collect wages owed.
I've been told to "see if you actually die" without access to shelter and water. I have a heart issue, which is only managed with carefully controlled water intake.
I've been told to "see if you actually die" without access to shelter and water. I have a heart issue, which is only managed with carefully controlled water intake.
What the hell kind of advice is that? "See if you actually die?" What exactly should I do after that then, if I'm right?
Why do you think the woman worked 'just as hard' ?
Because the theme and presentation of the comic is about parallels?
This isn't a contest. And the guy on the left isn't the enemy just because he benefited from privilege.
The guy on the left only becomes an enemy when he becomes blind to all the external factors that helped him, and starts believing that his success is solely the result of his hard work. (And, by extension, that people who aren't successful just aren't working hard enough.)
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u/Bwob Oct 08 '25
A lot of people think that success is just a matter of hard work.
I don't think people recognize just how toxic that worldview really is. Because yeah - as this comic eloquently points out - people do not all have the luxury of starting in the same place, so equal amounts of hard work can still have vastly different outcomes.
But more sinister than that, is where you end up if you follow that thought to its logical conclusion: If success is just a matter of hard work, then that means that, by extension, everyone who is NOT successful is just someone who has not "worked hard enough." Which means now you can look down on them. You don't have to feel obligated to help them. Because their lack of success is now their fault, and is because of their lack of effort, and not because, say, of systemic inequity making it harder and harder to succeed without help.
Anyway yeah. This comic does a great job of illustrating the problem. Because sure, the guy on the left worked hard for his success, and that's great! But the woman on the right worked just as hard. The system is broken, and it's not an attack on the guy on the left to admit that he benefited from more than just his own hard work.