Letters to the Editor
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"By and large MOST people who screw it up screw up because of something they did or did not do, willfully."
This is sometimes true, and it's sometimes not. (If you get cancer,for example, and lose your job and insurance coverage, it's probably not your fault.) However, "screwing up willfully" is a lot harder to do if you're upper middle class to affluent. I know plenty of well-off to rich kids who have gotten pregnant (mom and dad paid for the abortion), used drugs (rehab at some expensive facility rather than jail) and dropped out (admission at another prestigious school after a suitable break to find themselves). A case in point is my own brother, who now works hard but whose late teens and early twenties were spent using drugs, dropping out, and marrying a worthless user. When he had financial trouble after the divorce, my parents took over his house payment for a few months. He still has his house and a new job and is doing great--but let me tell you, for most people, that would have been bankruptcy time. A lot of people don't have this kind of social safety net. Everyone is going to do something stupid in his or her life, even those of us who pride ourselves on our sober responsibility, but the impact of that stupid choice really is disproportionate.