A Boring Dystopia

Problem is that this is antithetical to much of the grandstanding that we do about the beauty and efficiency and yadda yadda of free markets. The narrative is, of course, that anyone can succeed wholly on their own merit in a free market economy if they just try hard enough, and if you're not succeeding, then you're obviously just not trying. Yet, here we've got data that throws an asterisk into the mix and says that if you want to buy a house, you're probably going to need to have all three of:

• parents

• who have money

• and are willing to share it with you.

None of which any individual is in any kind of control of. You can't tryhard your way into having wealthy parents that are happy to buy things for you, so now we're forced to re-examine the system and whether you really can succeed just by trying hard. The answer is more nuanced, but it boils down to luck. Yes, it is possible, given the right circumstances, that hard work can lead to success. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, hard work means squat compared to luck. Other things are much more critical to success in our economic system, including owning assets, having powerful connections, and having the right skillset combined with the right opportunities, and most of those things boil down to luck.

I'm mortgaging a house, but I'm not delusional enough to believe that luck didn't play a role. We got very, very lucky to have the right opportunities at the right time, as well as to have one parent with the money and willingness to share it to help us get into our starter home. Failing one of those, which would have been simple enough to have failed, we'd still be renting and living in a much worse financial situation, both in terms of monthly bills and net worth. We worked for it, yes, but pulling on your bootstraps isn't enough, and it's time to stop pretending that it is. It hasn't been enough for a long time, and I can't fathom that it ever was the case.