Economist Robert Frank considers the role of luck:
“And yet, the
luckiest among us appear especially unlikely to appreciate our good fortune.
According to the Pew Research Center, people in higher income brackets are much
more likely than those with lower incomes to say that individuals get rich
primarily because they work hard. Other surveys bear this out: Wealthy people
overwhelmingly attribute their own success to hard work rather than to factors
like luck or being in the right place at the right time.
That’s troubling,
because a growing body of evidence suggests that seeing ourselves as self-made—rather
than as talented, hardworking, and lucky—leads us to be less generous and
public-spirited. It may even make the lucky less likely to support the
conditions (such as high-quality public infrastructure and education) that made
their own success possible.”