Bullshit I've seen people who are complete retarded pass public schools, and I've seen geniuses fail. It has nothing to do with smarts its all effort, as is everything you've just tried to dismiss.
Ah, I see Saturday Night Live and Tina Fey has taught you well.
Anyone can get health care, you just have to
want it enough.
Joking aside, success in anything (including career success, and in turn obtaining employer provided healthcare) is far more complex than "just effort." Effort is a key component, but it is just one factor among many that helps determine success; not all of which are in the control of the individual. Natural intelligence is quite useful, though to a certain degree, effort can replace intelligence. Yet neither of those account for everything. Simple charisma is quite important as well, and random happenstance is king. Since we are on the topic of the President, do you think Reconstruction after the Civil War would have gone better if Lincoln had just put in more effort in regards to living? Or would George Bush Sr. have been reelected if he merely tried harder? Certainly a bullet and Rose Perot had a hand in how events turned out and there was little either Lincoln or George H.W. Bush could have done to mitigate them, intelligence-wise or effort-wise.
I believe science actually gives us a very nice view of how one achieves success. An investigator must be knowledgeable to even know how to formulate a novel research project. An investigator must also be intelligence to figure out how to best approach that project and to figure out how to address the inherent setbacks along the way (things line "crap, this microarray isn't producing clean results; is the problem with the machine, the gel, the subject, etc?"). An investigator must also be willing to devote ridiculous amounts of effort to the project (in scientific research, there is no such thing as an 8 hour day, weekends off, or holidays; if its Christmas but an experiment needs to be tended to, it is off to the lab). However an investigator has to work against the incompetence of others (lab techs, graduate students, control centers, government official, institution policies, etc). An investigator also must work against the clock (a research project is worthless if someone else publishes first). And finally, an investigator must also work against his own colleagues (spies and sabotage are as much of the world of science as they are of the world of politics).
For every thing a single individual can do to improve their lot, others can undo it, and random happenstance (in the above example, not every research project can produce positive results) can undo it all.
Intelligence, book-smarts, and effort are just some of the things a person can do to help themselves succeed, but they will be held back by others, by the circumstances they find themselves in, and by plain bad luck.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was a depression coming around the corner.
Recession, certainly, but in all reality we may be already approaching the bottom. Things have been quite bad over the last 7 years (indeed, our economy is doing better than I would have expected, considering all the hits it has taken), but things seem to be coming to a point. As credit dries up hopefully individuals will stop relying on credit. Which will necessitate saving in turn (as it is unlikely people will ever stop buying stuff). That will slow down the economy more, granted, but the act of saving will also give people a sense of security (provided banks stop failing; and there aren't that many more that can fail, right?
![Wink ;)](https://www.chronocompendium.com/Forums/Smileys/default/icon_wink.gif)
). When people feel more secure, they'll be willing to spend and invest more, stimulating the economy.
The fever should break soon and well be on the road to recovery. True, we wont be able to run a marathon anytime soon, but as long as we don't turn into a hypochondriac, we will eventually be doing quite well again... then people will begin to overestimate the economy, do incredibly stupid things, and we'll crash again. But hopefully we'll learn a little and the next time it wont be so bad.