If people woke up to how unearned things like intelligence and circumstances of birth are, and how much they affect life outcomes, they'd be beset with guilt. T

If people woke up to how unearned things like intelligence and circumstances of birth are, and how much they affect life outcomes, they'd be beset with guilt. Thus it's psychologically imperative that they can blame some other factor for poor people. They'll pick out one thing, and load it up with all the meaning. What particularly disgusts me is judging people for their choice of resource allocation, for using their very freedom. If a poor person chooses to invest in a high-end phone, it's probably because they really really want it; because it will transform their lives more than can easily be appreciated on the outside. It's the same thing with a luxury meal; being poor doesn't mean you ought to live on water and gruel for the whole of your life with the aim of saving a small bundle of cash in case of illness - such a life would hardly be worth living. Flourishing demands peaks, local maxima of happiness, and to deny poor people that is almost inhuman.