On Cooking Your Social Experiments

[jamesq]

One man's selfless experiment to prove that if you're a young, white, healthy, single, clean-cut, college-educated male, you can go from ground-level to one step up the economic ladder. Congratulations!

Of course, he had a raft-load of unspoken advantages.

And he knew that it would end after a preset interval.

And he didn't have to weather any economically crippling crisis.

It was the equivalent of running a 100 yard sprint while well-rested, and all the other competitors were running a marathon.

Oh yeah, and he quit early because of a family medical emergency - ending his experiment with an event that, in the real world, would often force people into poverty. So to continue my analogy, he didn't even run the whole 100 yards - he sort of sauntered through 90%, got a leg cramp, saw there were people behind him and said "good enough, I win".

Can people dig themselves out of bad circumstances through hard work, sacrifice and perseverance? Of course they can - it happens every day. But you need one other thing: luck. People who are lucky are sometimes lucky in ways that are so second-nature to their existence, they don't realize it.

I'm pretty lucky: I had two loving, supportive parents who instilled in me a solid work ethic. I have an education that conferred on me a lot more then just a piece of paper and a set of technical skills. I'm part of a social network consisting of other people like me. I live in a country that doesn't ignore the sick.

There's places in this world where, all else being equal, I'd have died before my first birthday (I was born six weeks premature and I had a congenital birth defect that required surgery at six weeks of age).

I guess what really bothers me about this story is the smug Rand-ian attitude this kid has. You can imagine him years from now voting to abolish social programs because he thinks he's "proved" that the only reason the poor are poor is because they're lazy, unlike him.Rent a flat above a shop,
cut your hair and get a job.
Smoke some fags and play some pool,
pretend you never went to school.
But still you'll never get it right,
cos when you're laid in bed at night,
watching roaches climb the wall,
if you call your Dad he could stop it all.

You'll never live like common people,
you'll never do what common people do,
you'll never fail like common people,
you'll never watch your life slide out of view,
and dance and drink and screw,
because there's nothing else to do.

Comments

[bungle-lord.livejournal.com]

I am reminded of my grandfather, who taught himself how to play the violin by ear. None of his children seem to have much musical talent.

When my aunt was learning to play an instrument, she memorized the sequence of notes to be played. This means playing the same piece over and over until it sinks in. My grandfather could not seem to understand why she needed to go through this laborious process.

I think it was quite an achievement that the boy made. His major mistake is thinking that everybody can be like him, or that everybody can change to be like him. All it takes is will power! In science, after one has achieved a result in an experiment, one checks to see if the experiment can be replicated and/or expanded. It would be interesting to take a large number of similar subjects (young, white, healthy, single, clean-cut, college-educated males) and see how many of those manage to achieve those goals.


You missed one major advantage that this guy had. He was in those circumstances by his own choice. He did not have to go through any of the emotional trauma that often accompanies a downward change in economic circumstances.

[bungle-lord.livejournal.com]

I just realized, for the expanded experiment, we would be selecting from a group that has already demonstrated the ability to complete a significant goal: college. It would be interesting to see what percentage would succeed. If every one succeeded, that tells us some things. If very view succeed, that tells us other things. Also, if we scattered the subjects in many cities, would we find regional differences in the results?

[ksej.livejournal.com]

"People who are lucky are sometimes lucky in ways that are so second-nature to their existence, they don't realize it."

This makes me think of my sister, who was talking about her savings one day, and I commented how lucky she was to have savings. "Oh no," she said, "it's not luck, it's good judgement."

OK, I'll grant her some judgement, but there was also some good fortune. Like the fact that she didn't have a horrible relationship explosion that led to mental health issues that led to a year of being unable to work that led to several more years of severely restricted opportunities like, oh, the person she was talking to at the time. (Yeah, that one does still rankle.)