"myself, who studied full time for many years, worked three different jobs at once, rarely seeing my growing kids, so I could pay off the mortgage and lift myself out of the menial, boring and arduous work my upbringing and youth had destined me for"
And you should be rewarded significantly for that over the person who didn't do those hard yards. Just like I should be rewarded for spending 4 years at university, delivering pizzas to survive and living on the smell of an oily rag while many of my friends where out working full time jobs and enjoying life. If you don't reward people for putting in the hard yards to improve their lot no one will bother doing it = exactly why socialism fails, people are lazy by nature, if there isn't a reward for doing something we won't do it
