I brought up this topic because I have been jokingly telling a friend, who will be laid off soon, that it's nearly impossible for him to end up on skid row, because he's white and middle-class. Society just wont let him, unless he really just tries to mess everything up.
I consider myself successful, by my own Perceiver-ey metrics. I've got a killer career in a socio-economic class that affords me all kinds of choice privilege. I've had the leeway to mess up so many times and end up on my feet, I'm divorced, I pay my dues yet afford to live pretty comfortable in a high-cost area, I've owned a couple houses, I've ran a couple small businesses just for fun. I have time to waste. So, I'm starting to wonder, how much of that success can I claim?
On one hand, I was raised in the hood in a family of 7, without being taught how to aspire, actively discouraged to pursue post High School education, and given almost no tools to succeed in life. I left home at 16 as a H.S. dropout with no idea on how to manage money, maintain a household, or even drive.
But on the other hand as role models, my mother was recklessly entrepreneurial, my father was voraciously inquisitive, and we always had a computer in the house. We didn't have more tools than a butter knife, better food than government cheese, enough money to give an allowance, but my family had a computer back when not everybody even had a calculator in the house. Then I had lots of help from others on my way 'up'.
I wonder if that's all success is, proof that things can be accomplished and dumb luck.