[derefr]

> so the probability of doing something that requires less effort than everyone else and having a better livelihood than them seems, well, unlikely

Tell that to everyone who is wealthy enough to live off their investment portfolio (or just savings-interest, which is implicitly a very low-volatility investment portfolio provided by the bank.) Tell that to trust-fund kids. Tell that to artists and musicians and writers who make their money off royalties. And, meanwhile, also tell that to the population of some cities in the US where business revenue is supported entirely by disability cheques[1].

There are a lot of people in this world who don't "work for a living"; the middle-class seems to have a mental block associated with imagining how they got there.

[1] http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

[kylebrown]

> everyone who is wealthy enough to live off their investment portfolio ... trust-fund kids ... artists and musicians and writers who make their money off royalties.

The people you listed make up less than 1% of the population (unlikely by definition). As for people living off disability and SSI (social security income) checks, that only affords an average livelihood (or below).

The middle class mental block is how an economy can function if everyone (or most people) were to live from passive income. It is well understood that most "financially independent" had their good fortune through inheritance.

[ricardobeat]

Not exactly a fair bundle; unlike investment bankers, musicians and artists create real value.

[theorique]

Somebody must consider the work output of investment bankers to have some value, otherwise that money would never change hands.

You may personally consider their work to have no value for you, or think it is morally dubious, or whatever, but for anyone to be paid, his work must have value to somebody.

[ricardobeat]

The reason I commented is that an artist living off royalties is (usually) reaping results of actual work done, while putting cash into a fund + sitting and waiting, or being a trust-fund kid equals zero effort, so it's not fair to put these in the same basket. I agree investment/trading can amount to real value at the end of the chain, but these are worlds apart.