I'm in a similar position to you (I grew up on free lunch and now have a well-paid engineering career). But your or my existence and success doesn't negate the

I'm in a similar position to you (I grew up on free lunch and now have a well-paid engineering career). But your or my existence and success doesn't negate the trend; there will always be outliers. I don't think I've ever had a coworker who grew up anywhere near as poor as I did, and all things considered my family wasn't all that poor.