[user104658]

Nah you can scale it right back to the bottom end of the scale if you ask me. I don't earn "a lot", but my pay is considerably more than, for example, someone working in a busy fast food place.

Full disclosure; I don't work anywhere near as hard as they do. I don't work anywhere near as hard as my own min wage cleaner 90% of the time!

Could I be doing better if I had worked harder? Maybe / probably but basically, the idea that "harder working people are the ones who earn more" is just nonsense. There are a lot of rich lazy people in the world; and even more very hard working people just scraping by.

The highest earners, most of the time, get where they are through a combination of luck and privilege. Knowing or getting to know the right people, being in the right place at the right time. It's not that hard work isn't involved - - I'm sure people then have to work to make the most of those opportunities - - but having them in the first place takes more than "hard work".