[quote=scaredycat]do you really think the winners and losers are all that different/
One guy bets red, one guy bets black at the roulette table.
red wins.
the guy who bet red is the same as the guy who bet black.
so it is at the roulette tables of finance… of many things.
we like to ascribe our luck to skill or good character.
i don’t believe it.[/quote]
Yes, luck plays a much bigger part in most peoples’ lives than they care to admit.
Just think about the fact that most of us were born healthy and many/most of us were born in the U.S. during a time when it was the most prosperous nation on earth. Many of us were born to formally educated parents who cared about us and wanted the best for us. Some were born into homes where there were no drug or alcohol addictions, no abuse, no yelling or screaming. Some were born a particular race or a particular gender or a certain height or with particularly attractive physical features. All of these things have a disproportionate affect on future outcomes, IMHO.
We like to think that we’re very smart (another outsized win in the genetic lottery, if you’re intelligent) and have made all the right decisions. We like to think that we’ve “earned” our lot in life.
Personally, I think most of us would be in a very different position if we were born the wrong race/ethnicity in a war-torn country. What if we were the children of drug-addicted prostitutes who were raped by neighboring (warring) tribesmembers (think Darfur)? Think we’d still be in the same place then?
