this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2026
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Surgeons and engineers make bank last I checked, so that's a bit of a funny example. Markets do reward in-demand practical skills.
What societies (in general) really reward is dumb luck and networking, though.
Median salary for a surgeon is $450,000/year.
Someone with $10,000,000 in VOO can withdraw $450,000/year, and still compound their wealth year over year, without working at all. The absolute worst case scenario is that they start doing this at the start of a recession, like mid 2007, in which case, they would STILL be compounding their wealth year over year, with the exception of the short time it took to dip.
Simply having $10,000,000 and sitting on your ass > Being a surgeon.
Oh yeah, and that's all before taxes.
So yes, to some extent, society rewards skill. But it is FAR more rewarding to the people who already have wealth.
Yeah, but how do you get 10 million dollars?
While these answers are correct, it's doesn't really say much about what traits are rewarded. It's kind of tautological - if we assume you've started ahead, you'll be ahead. Otherwise, it's mostly luck, with a bit of knowing the right people, which is also down to luck.
Maybe what you meant is that wealth shouldn't be permanent(-ish). Which is valid. It's just not a matter of personality, like everything else on the list in OP.
It doesn't matter. Investments do not care where the money comes from.
You worked as a surgeon for 20 years while living with parents and not paying bills? $10 million.
Your great great grandfather was a plumber and built up some wealth and your great grandfather was an electrician and built up more wealth, and... your father works in real estate and all of these people set you up with a trust fund and you start out with $2 million, and then you withdraw 100k per year to live on, doing nothig else for 17 years, and your fund slowly climbs to $10 million. Well, that's also $10 million.
You're one of Nancy Pelosi's kids and she gives you a $10 million fund on your 18th birthday? Thats $10 million.
Do you see now how having $10 million doesn't reward the traits of any of these people? It only rewards having $10 million. It does not matter how you acquired it.
and that person with $10 million succesfully escaped being a wageslave with the help of their predecessors
Yeah, those are some great and realistic examples.
I don't want to be obtuse, here, repeating myself more than necessary, but this bit was important:
FWIW my best guess for how OP would have ended it, is "it rewards being evil". Usually that's where people go.
I guess luck isn't really a personality trait, either, but it's what you can personally have that allows you to climb relative to other people with the same start.
The thing society rewards most is already having lots of capital to throw around. No skill, talent, work ethic, or even connectedness is as important as simply having assets. Our society has regressed to reward being rich over everything else.
If you go down the list of big billionaires, most of them didn't start as billionaires. For the most part, they started out in the comfortable "upper-middle" class, like a lot of Lemmy users, and then got involved in a startup that took them to the top (edit: luck).
It's not surprising, really. If you just have inherited capital and no extra luck, the best you can do is the same 10% rate of return as everyone else. (Although coming from a rich family is both luck and connections, itself)
You say that like bloodline first and then wealth was better. That is what came before.
Ehm mister or not,
What engineers does society in 2026 reward? Last time I checked everyone is fucked
The people at FAANGS (or whatever they're calling it now) famously start with wages that would be the absolute peak of someone else's career. Never mind comparing to an unskilled worker.
I know less about what physical/"real" engineers make in 2026, but I doubt it's changed that much.
Real engineer here, mechanical working to design medical devices like plates and screws for trauma cases.
We average around $100k across the US, and on the extreme end can top out around $200k, but that's a rare case. Typical top end is $150k with I'd say at least 12 years if experience.
Starting salary typically $70k.
This is for places that are average COL, so not San Francisco, and also not Alabama.
Yeah, that's decent. Not fuck-you money, but decent.
OP asked for any example, so I went with FAANGS, but wages there are inflated by being a bunch of monopolies all headquartered in the same place. Last I heard a senior dev in Canada makes like 60k.
A senior dev in Canada also makes 6 figures.
But some recruiters label beginner positions as senior for whatever reason.
Well, maybe the guy I was talking to was underpaid. It's definitely a lot less than in the 'states, though.
Yeah, buddy, hate to bring it to you, but software engineers are not the real engineers. We're just monkeys repeating something that we barely heard of.
You can start working as a software engineer just after school. Imagine an aerospace, civil, or electrical engineer without proper education.
Okay, sure, the guy that mostly copy-pastes/vibecodes javascript is not on level with a rocket scientist. What about, like, Linus Torvalds, though? The complexity involved in a big codebase outstrips even the most complicated aircraft. Nobody's saying mathematicians aren't serious thinkers, and yet, we're putting in a whole lot of effort, with things like Lean, to catch up with coders.
They aren't accredited like "real" engineers, but that might be a matter of where we are in history more than anything. Charles Parsons didn't have to certify anything when he was building the first dreadnoughts. Both fields are about designing new technology, and that's basically what defines the word "engineer".
Also, Fauci made bank off of covid. And everyone agrees he's a scientist.
Uhh... source?