First, I’m not raising boys. My wife and I raised two sharp, capable young women. Second, there’s nothing poor or even middle about me. I’m very successful, affluent, and healthy as a result of fantastic luck compounded by hard work and focus, and lot of help. I don’t fall into the “almost all” category. Our lives are exceptional on almost every level and there’s nothing more irritating to me than people in my shoes poor mouthing or referring to themselves as even middle class. We are not and inshallah we won’t be.
That’s exactly my point- most people are dealt a bad hand. At least half (by definition) of them are below average on one or multiple levels - health, height, talent, upbringing, intelligence, appearance, access to opportunities, etc. most of the rest are bunched of in a tight group we thing of as the middle but are really the above-average-but-not-enough-to-matter, and most of the rest don’t catch the happenstance breaks that really matter.
The fact that you conflate “impoverished existence” with economic poverty primarily or “poor people” tells me that the rent for shirt with your name on it has never in your life come out of your paycheck, so I’ll try to explain this as succinctly as possible, ahem:
EVERYONE HAS IT HARD IN AMERICA.
I did not say they had it harder. I said that almost all lead a more “impoverished existence” than safe sex does, and that doesn’t even seem controversial. Good profession, rich inner life, integrity, sense of humor and irony, brains? Are you saying that almost all young white men don’t lack those things?