Born Lucky

This essay by David Roberts is really important. The perceptions people have of why they are successful is an incredibly important predictor of how they view the world.  If you are successful and believe that your success is solely because of your ability and hard work, your perception of those who aren't successful will necessarily be negative. This is the problem at the root of Andrew Carnegie's philanthropy.  While he believed he had a responsibility to help other people, his preferred means - building them libraries - were based on his own experience, whereby he attributed his success to his literacy.  Meanwhile, he's forcing his workers to work 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week, and then saying what they really need to do at the end of the day is read.

Another Gilded Age example of this mindset is the Acres of Diamonds sermon by Russell Conwell.  Here is a key passage (and remember, this is a clergyman talking):

While we should sympathize with God's poor—that is, those who cannot help themselves—let us remember there is not a poor person in the United States who was not made poor by his own shortcomings, or by the shortcomings of someone else. It is all wrong to be poor, anyhow. Let us give in to that argument and pass that to one side.

This argument sounded wonderful to the well-fed "Christians" who flocked to hear him speak. You are rich, because God and your God-given talents and character made you rich.

Roberts' thesis that luck is a powerful factor in your success or failure requires a dramatic re-thinking of how we exist in the world.  WaPo has an article about the GM workers of Youngstown, OH, who have been laid off because GM doesn't want to make compact cars in the US anymore.  Their economic conditions have been dictated by events outside their control: luck.  Their ability to adapt to this change varies widely.  One worker has already picked himself up and landed on his feet as a commercial truck driver and prison guard.  His natural flexibility was also wedded to the fact that he hadn't been working at GM that long.  Other workers are older than me and unable to learn the new technical skills to transition to new jobs.  Trying to teach a 60 year old autoworker to write code is simply not feasible. 

Each individual brings his or her unique talents and experience to every situation, but every situation is dictated by luck or circumstances.  (Roberts acknowledges and dismisses the various straw men arguments against luck as a controlling factor.)

If Americans ever embraced the idea that luck is a critical factor in one's success, we might be more willing to tax the very rich at levels they deserve, in order to fund programs that improve the circumstances (luck) of the broad majority of Americans.  We can do that without ignoring the role of individual merit in determining outcomes.  That's the definition of "safety net."