I suppose I might sound like one of those people she's decrying in her article, but frankly my experience with my peers as I was building my career is that a lo

I suppose I might sound like one of those people she's decrying in her article, but frankly my experience with my peers as I was building my career is that a lot of the people who I became friends with when I was younger over our shared passion for technology (and usually gaming) failed to develop the same skillset and career prospects because they didn't possess the same attitudes. Over time, I've drifted away from those people and built new friend groups as an adult through people from work and school, and almost all of those peers were focused on building wealth and supporting a family above other concerns. In both groups, all of the people involved had early access to computers (a privilege), opportunities for technical education (a privilege), and some measure of parental support (a privilege), but the choices and motivations matter, and those who are making the choices that lead to building wealth from a wage earned do so. While the author might not look at it the same way, it's absolutely parental support that some of my former friends who are nearing (or into) their 40s are able to still live at home (which might be a trailer) with their parents in a small Midwest town and play video games all day while working a minimum wage job. One former friend was one of the most capable developers I've ever known, did tons of open source work, but just doesn't want to work in the industry and instead has worked fast food jobs for the nearly 25 years I've known them, while I was earning a six figure income that entire time working in tech with less skills. Through some of my other personal connections, I know plenty of people in the art world as well, and pretty much all of them fall into one of four categories (1) inherited wealth [the focus of her article], (2) married well, (3) struggling working for mostly non-profits at mid-level or lower roles, or (4) art became a hobby while they went into a "real" job. The folks in (1) make up a tiny tiny tiny fraction of the people I've met in the art world, but a significant portion of those who make art their "career". I think this, to some degree or another, has always been the case. While this may be a shocking reality to stumble upon in your 30s, I'd suggest this means you haven't really been paying attention, rather than the world is an unjust and unfair place and all extant systems should be torn down. As a Millennial, my observations and experiences have strongly supported a conclusion that life is mostly what you make of it. All but a handful of the people I call friends now came from very modest beginnings, myself included, mostly from small towns in the Midwest, with no special treatment to speak of in their education, yet all managed to build successful professional careers in technology by focusing on the right motivations and making the right choices for their goals. Most of the folks I know in arts in category (3) above love their position in life, because they get to do what they're passionate about every day, but they're also not under any illusion that they'll ever make as much money as the people who pursued high-demand professional careers. I don't know what it is about the author and many of the folks who end up in (2) or (4) above, but they almost always feel like life is unfair because they wanted to have the lifestyle of (1) or somebody in a professional career, while not doing the things necessary to earn it. Thems the breaks, life's not fair, but it's not /that/ hard to figure out either. If you're figuring this out in your 30s, it's not ideal, but it's also not too late to make different choices now. It starts with accepting accountability for your own choices and making a change, not with whining about it, though.