The Bootstrap Lie: Work Hard, Stay Poor

They told us that if we worked hard, we’d succeed. That grit beats luck. That poverty is a personal failure.
But that was never true. And in this episode, we rip the mask off the most toxic lie in American culture: the myth of the bootstrap.

Over five in-depth segments, we break down the history, the policies, and the human cost of a system built not to reward hard work—but to protect wealth, punish the poor, and distract us with blame.

We walk through redlining, racist education policy, student debt, corporate bailouts, and billionaire handouts. And we close by calling out the cowards in Congress who ran off on vacation instead of voting to release the Epstein files that could implicate Donald Trump and others in sex trafficking.

This isn’t about left or right. This is about truth vs. survival theater. And this time, we name the lie.

• Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, 2022

• EdBuild, “$23 Billion” Report – https://edbuild.org/content/23-billion

• Mapping Inequality Project, University of Richmond – https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/

• Economic Policy Institute, Wage Stagnation Report – https://epi.org

• Pew Research Center, “Americans and Social Mobility” – https://pewresearch.org

• SAT Income Gap Report – College Board Data via Washington Post

• “Legacy and Athlete Preferences at Harvard” – Nature (2023): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06374-9

• ProPublica: “The Ivy League’s Billionaire Booster Pipeline” – https://propublica.org

• Good Jobs First: Subsidy Tracker – https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/subsidy-tracker

• ProPublica: “The Secret IRS Files” – https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/irs-nonprofit-tax-dodge

• GAO Report on PPP Loan Fraud – https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-105715.pdf

• Levy Economics Institute (TARP + Fed Bailouts) – https://www.levyinstitute.org/publications/

• SBA PPP Loan Forgiveness Records – https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/

• AP News: “House GOP Leaves Early as Epstein Vote Looms” – https://apnews.com/article/congress-jeffrey-epstein-trump-f2a03eca247268b14a9e38858338eded

• PBS: “Speaker Ends House Session Early Over Epstein Records Vote” – https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/speaker-ends-house-session-early-as-gop-clashes-over-epstein-files-vote

• TIME: “FBI Flagged Mentions of Trump in Epstein Files” – https://time.com/7303673/donald-trump-epstein-files-fbi-durbin/

• Axios: “Massie’s Push to Release Epstein Records” – https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-hill-leaders-d23d62d0-63ee-11f0-851d-91b354bf947a

• The Daily Beast: “The Epstein Files Are Forcing MAGA to Eat Their Own” – https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-epstein-files-are-forcing-maga-faithful-to-eat-their-own

#TheLiesWeTell #BootstrapLie #WealthGap #EpsteinFiles #CongressionalCowards #StudentDebtCrisis #Redlining #CorporateWelfare #EndTheMyth

🔎 Sources Cited in This Episode:🏛️ Structural Inequality & Wealth Gaps:📚 Education & Testing:💰 Corporate Welfare & Tax Evasion:📰 Epstein Files & Congressional Cowardice:🟡 Suggested Hashtags for Posting: