Not to defend him, but having your parents pay for your education is hardly a rare circumstance. It's not the case for everyone, sure, but it is for plenty of ordinary people. I don't understand why Musk is supposed to be outstanding in this regard.
> Not to defend him, but having your parents pay for your education is hardly a rare circumstance.
This. Parents have worked their tails off to build a better life for their kids for millenia. Calling it a form of privilege seems like a gross misunderstanding of human behavior.
I think the way to take this comment is "He didn't pull himself up by his own bootstraps. And people need to stop pretending like any of his history means that he did."
Being born with privilege is not a choice, and so you are right people should not be shamed for that. The problem is something else. Details here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35919637
Maybe not rare in a very small bubble. That bubble of graduates, for example. But certainly rare given the entire world population. And even rare, within a generic western, white, culture (hardly a fraction goes to university of those, let alone being paid for it by family).
He's outstanding because he cannot be honest about the situation. Even his father contradicts Elon's claims. Elon claims he was in 100k debt during schooling, it's revealed he had scholarships and his father paid living expenses. It's revealed his father had involvement with emerald mines, going as far as to state they were regularly sold for upwards of $500 a piece, Elon then claims he doesn't remember anything except seeing a small jewelry box filled with "low quality emeralds".
Do you sense the pattern? It would be as if Paris Hilton went around repeatedly saying she was dirt poor and used her galaxy sized brain to start her own business without any help. People would, obviously and quite reasonably, mock it for its absurdity. Yet when the same happens to Elon Musk, there are endless hysterical defenses ready. As if you are telling a child that Santa isn't real.
Two thirds of Americans don't have a college degree. The most common professions in the country are clerk, cashier, food prep worker and truck driver. If your parents were able to pay for your university education you probably grew up at the upper end of the upper middle class, which is already a very lucky position to be in.
Ordinary people make about 35k per year, half make less. They're not paying for an expensive college education.
"having your parents pay for your education is hardly a rare circumstance" - What is your source for this? Why do you think the President wanted to forgive student loan if paying for education was not such a big problem?
Median American household income is $70k before taxes. Do you think this household can afford college tuition and expenses?
And the median family income of a U Penn undergraduate is almost $200,000 annually. Heck at Georgia Tech, where I went, it’s $130,000, and almost 1/4 of the students come from the top 5%. To put it another way—Musk’s level of family support is hardly unusual compared to that of the thousands of engineers who work for him.
Journalism at the national level is extremely competitive, and draws from a highly credentialed talent pool. The reason people with such credentials pursue such a low paying job is because their families are often quite affluent—they are often doctors, lawyers, etc.
University is far more expensive today than back then, too. Ironically this supports your point in Elon’s case, but today it’s very much not a given that parents can even minimally help their kids get through college. My wife’s couldn’t.
