Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Daniels: You make your luck

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Mitch Daniels says "that outside of the extremes it's the luck you make not the luck of the world that determines your fate." So summarized Andrew Rotham. Or as Joanne Jacobs says, "except for 'tragically bad luck,' it rarely 'decides a life's outcome.'" I think that on that basis we would have to define "tragically bad luck" as "not being born rich." Jacobs also quotes Barack Obama, speaking at Harvard: "Yes, you've worked hard, but you've also been lucky. That's a pet peeve of mine: People who have been successful and don't realize they've been lucky." I think Obama's take is more correct. As Rotham says, "Daniels' argument confuses what's possible with what's probable." Jacobs concludes, "for many born in poverty, economic mobility is a longshot." I have no illusion that education by itself will change this. For those not born rich, education is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for prosperity.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 1:31 p.m.

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