smart: Excluding Americans with obvious disabilities (mental or otherwise) and the elderly, are the wealthy only wealthy because they choose to work hard and smart? Are the rest simply choosing not to do the same or do they lack the capacity? Consider people who are not diagnosed with a mental illness, but who are socially or intellectually impaired to one degree or another. Consider people who were raised in unfortunate circumstances or by parents who lacked the capacity to teach proper principles.Do all Americans have the same mental/emotional capacity to become wealthy by working hard and smart?No characteristic is evenly distributed within the population. Not height, not weight, not eyesight, not strength, and not the ability to do things that can make one wealthy.|||It's certainly not an issue of social structure -- there are people from all origins who become wealthy. But it's also not just a case of working hard or working smart. Working hard and smart will pretty well guarantee you a middle class lifestyle, but not riches. Achieving wealth takes some combination of ambition and motivation (most people are actually NOT trying to become wealthy, after all), intelligence and cleverness and shrewdness, some type of productive skill, social intelligence, and luck. Different individuals have greatly varying degrees of these qualities, so your answer is no.Do all Americans have the same mental/emotional capacity to become wealthy by working hard and smart?People are different. Even if two people are exactly the same the choices they make will give them different outcomes. Working hard and smart as an auto mechanic will not make you as wealthy as the guy who invents the next great gadget. The two might be equally smart but the mechanic chose a safe profession where he knew he would always have work while the other took the chance that he would starve while trying to sell his ideas and very well could have. Those willing to take risks with their lives have a greater chance of becoming wealthy.|||What you have said is Japanese and German,not American.We will work hard if the bonus is big enough,regardless where the money comes from.And CEOs are seem to be the only class of persons who are working hard and smart under this concept. Because they are the only class which takes the big portion of the cake.But his argument is that he is working for the owners,and you are working for me.What are you gonna do?Do all Americans have the same mental/emotional capacity to become wealthy by working hard and smart?AMERICANS ARE MOTIVATED TO WORK FOR WHAT THEY HAVE AND OWN BY THE GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE AS WELL AS INFLUENCE OF THE COMMUNITY. BOTH POLITICS AND ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE PPL TO HAVE ALMOST THE SAME MENTALITY. THERE IS NUFFNK FOR FREE SO THEY WORK HARD ENUFF AND MAKE THEMSELVES HAPPIER|||Whether we admit it or not, there is a social structure and it is very difficult to get out of. So, the answer to the question is NO.|||ha ha ha ! care to know how many wealthies are under psy-treatment ? that's very common among them. till 2000, amassing weath was mental disorder.....after that it's simply insanity ! the way they do it !!|||no, different people have different ability to work hard, or to learn new things, or to make choices.|||We can measure a variance in human capabilities for a wide range of physical and mental tasks. With regression analysis we can analyze a large number of variables that we suspect may help explain the variances we measure. Armed with the variables we have identified that seem to help explain the variance, we can test strategies to improve the capability in the humans that are not able to meet the highest level of capability in a given skill or task. Despite all these efforts, there remain large variations in the ability of humans to perform tasks that are recognized by other humans as valuable, either directly or indirectly. The behavior of people and their capacity to do things seems to be the product of two factors. Their genetic predispositions, both advantages and disadvantages in natural ability or physical strength, speed or mental acumen are one factor. The other factor is the environment they experience, from the time they are conceived through the moment the test or evaluation is conducted. The combination of these two factors is complex, and unclear in terms of which is most important in some capabilities, and how to influence the environment to achieve optimum results. But progress is being made, and many technologies, therapies and other measures such as early childhood education are showing some promise in narrowing the gap.