That's good to know. And I'm not saying that you specifically do believe that... it's more that your earlier post just seems to fit into a meme that seems to be becoming more and more prevalent around here, in which everything becomes attributable to "luck". Perhaps I over-reached in lumping your post into that category. Probably I'm just overly sensitive on this topic. :-)
Environment plays a huge role, even within America. Health plays a huge role, even in America. Anyone that is successful has been very fortunate, and a lot of smart hard workers have not been fortunate. It's important to recognize that.
I mean, yeah, in a sense... but you can work backwards from any success and find ways to attribute that success to luck. I mean, we're all "lucky" that a huge asteroid didn't strike the Earth yesterday and cause a worldwide cataclysm that might have killed us all. But focusing on that isn't, IMO, terribly useful, exactly because those things are out of our control.
OTOH, unless one rejects the idea of "free will" (which is certainly a valid point of debate), then you can control your own choices and actions - and I tend to believe that it's more important to focus on those things which are subject to (at least a degree of) control by us as individuals.
" But focusing on that isn't, IMO, terribly useful"
I agree when we're talking about making decisions in our own lives, but we should think about it at the level of society and government. We want policies that increase opportunity,and we need to know when we are failing. Social mobility is decreasing in America, and we should do something about it.
That's good to know. And I'm not saying that you specifically do believe that... it's more that your earlier post just seems to fit into a meme that seems to be becoming more and more prevalent around here, in which everything becomes attributable to "luck". Perhaps I over-reached in lumping your post into that category. Probably I'm just overly sensitive on this topic. :-)
Environment plays a huge role, even within America. Health plays a huge role, even in America. Anyone that is successful has been very fortunate, and a lot of smart hard workers have not been fortunate. It's important to recognize that.
I mean, yeah, in a sense... but you can work backwards from any success and find ways to attribute that success to luck. I mean, we're all "lucky" that a huge asteroid didn't strike the Earth yesterday and cause a worldwide cataclysm that might have killed us all. But focusing on that isn't, IMO, terribly useful, exactly because those things are out of our control.
OTOH, unless one rejects the idea of "free will" (which is certainly a valid point of debate), then you can control your own choices and actions - and I tend to believe that it's more important to focus on those things which are subject to (at least a degree of) control by us as individuals.