You've Never Had It So Good....

Loughton_Monkey

Generali wrote: »

To sum up this thread: most of you have no clue about how lucky you are.

I can never relate properly to this sort of issue.... the 'luck' of being born in UK rather than Guatamala.... for the simple reason that if "I" were born in Guatamala, I wouldn't be "me". I'd be someone completely different. Hence such a comparison is illogical.

To be pedantic, the question should really be more about if [for circumstances which I can't imagine, but let's go with] you were born exactly as you were, but at less than 24 hours old, you were 'swapped' with a baby born the same time in Guatemala of Guatemalan parents.

Under these circumstances, I would generally say that the Guatemalan brought up by UK parents would do better, on average, than "you", a UK baby brought up in Guatemala.

To be raised in a country with a general climate of opportunities for education, wealth and health as opposed to the reverse is clearly a 'bonus'. Not that UK fares much more than about 20th in education, maybe 7th in wealth?, possibly 12th in health [guesses], but admittedly that's better than most.

But surely other key factors are (a) genetic influences, (b) how you were raised pre-school, and (c) any individual's own propensity to capitalise (or not) upon what opportunities exist.

Point (c) may indeed be driven by (a) and/or (b).

To be honest, though, I am more than happy to have been born in UK. It will do. I guess I would just as happily been born in USA, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg... etc... But in any of these countries, at age 64, I could be sleeping in cardboard boxes. I could also have been a billionnaire. Or I could be something in between. Which I am. But looking back, the extent to which I am 'satisfied' with my life, I would estimate at least half to have been down to the way I was brought up, and most of the rest to be down to my own efforts. Luck wasn't really involved.

... a bit like those golfers who practice 12 hours a day, and in the tournament sink a 20 ft putt to win... who sarcastically say that it's funny that the more practice you do, the more 'lucky' you become in the tournament....