> I took an alternative and left home, educated myself, and turned myself into a halfway decent contributor to society. I really think the US still has a lot of

> I took an alternative and left home, educated myself, and turned myself into a halfway decent contributor to society. I really think the US still has a lot of ability to reward those who go after it even if that means becoming a carpenter and saving for 30 years to retire early. > I understand our society is not ideal, but I just think those problems are going to take generations to fix. Why not take care of yourself and do your best to fix your own shit. This is survivor bias. There are tons of people trying hard and working to be in a place where they can find an "alternative" to take, but are faced with structural impediments like under-resourced schools, poor family and community support structures, and incentive systems that encourage short term survival and gratification decisions over long term preparation. The existence of some people who don't strive for personal progress doesn't absolve us of the obligation to improve opportunites for those who do strive - and that begins from early childhood. Severe hardship is not a virtue we should be imposing on people to test their mettle. After all, very wealthy people don't remove support from their children if those children don't "make shit happen". In fact, they usually pour more resources into those children in order to motivate them (from drug treatment programs, to therapists, coaches, ...), and if that still doesn't work, they still provide for them financially.