True in general. In my case I have the privilege of being white, male, and being born in the US. Pretty good stuff, but also: homeless, single mom without a hig

True in general. In my case I have the privilege of being white, male, and being born in the US. Pretty good stuff, but also: homeless, single mom without a high school education, living in crappy parts of the country for that kind of thing (Texas). There are (as the British would say) knock-on effects from that -- it took me a long time to learn effective spending habits. When you're poor, you spend money when you have it, because it will be going away somehow regardless of what you do. Also bad teeth, which, you know, I shouldn't be sensitive about, but I sometimes am. :) Anyway, you're right, the privileges we're born into affect a lot of potential success. At the risk of sounding like an asshole, I'm trying to give my children all the advantages I didn't have, and genetically they're picking up the ones I did. They'd better damn well solve hunger or figure out world peace! :)