Totally agree about your family from another country, AN. Both of my parents were VERY poor growing up (immigrant from war-torn country on one side and Great Depression farmer on the other), but the “risks” they took weren’t nearly as great as what I see people taking today. Part of that is the shift in the United States’ position in the world. Things are different today, and people are being forced to take on more risk than people of 40+ years ago.

There is also a big difference between those who have nothing to lose, like people from developing countries with oppressive regimes trying to escape to the U.S., and those who could have a fairly decent life, but double-down just to make a quick buck. When one has nothing to lose, the benefits of that risk far outweigh the costs; but for those who have a lot to lose, the benefits are relatively small compared to the risks they are taking. These are two very different situations, and I’m willing to bet that the immigrants from developing countries are NOT taking on the kind of leverage as those who are native to the U.S., and who’ve grown up in middle-class (or better) families. Not all risks are the same.

Not for a single second have I failed to give credit for my good fortune to the “ovarian lottery,” as you call it. Both Mr. CAR and I are total winners, and we acknowledge it every single day. This is exactly why I’ve made the point about “luck” in all those other threads, and why I think that those of us who’ve been blessed with all of this luck have a duty to those who have not been so fortunate. It’s precisely this role of luck that makes me a “left-leaning socialist.” Very few people are successful simply because of their hard work or intelligence (in which luck also plays a very large role). Ninety percent of what we are could probably be attributed to luck, both good and bad.