Whether rich, poor or middle class, there was a wide horizon of opportunity both glamorous and mundane.  Now our cities are overcrowded with refugees, ‘immigrants’ seeking a ‘better life’ (read: living off the freebies our taxes provide) and exotic criminal gangs.  

Idealistic young liberals like this young man then can live out their peace corp fantasies and be adored by their little native charges – and it’s a lot cheaper and easier than flying half way around the world.

This young man had better think about it.  In his lifetime this country will crack under a wave of racially-based insurrections and the multi-culti dream will go the way of Yugoslavia.

The more useful of the two games is the one where you assume you have to trade in all of your circumstances and draw another set at random.

After publishing the insipid and execrable Ruben Brosbe for far too long, GS gives us the same with a slight twist: uncertainty and moral qualms, followed by the uplifting realization that We’re All the Same and Want the Same Things.

There’s definitely a potential film treatment here, and it can be worked on before the author leaves The Bronx and goes on to Better Things.

It also makes me think of those “what if” surveys I’m not a huge fan of, as in “would I rather have grown up with a great family but in poverty conditions or a not-as-supportive family in the suburbs?” I can’t help but be biased to what worked for me, but that’s human perspective for you. I’ll try to respond to your point more comprehensively if I misinterpreted your points.

One possible game is, would you trade your circumstances for another one at random?  Varying levels in risk aversion come into play, but as a thought experiment, it’s a good way to define who’s privileged, who’s not.  

Another game (closer to what Rawls had in mind) is to imagine that you have to make the gamble.  Then, without knowing in advance what the outcome is, you consider what kind of baseline rights and services a civilized society should provide its citizens. 

Like me, you had one of the greatest privileges of all: a supportive family who was able to have time to sustain you emotionally, physically, and so much more. So many parents of the students I teach struggle to work two jobs to help their children physically as fix broken relationships and bring aunts, uncles, grandparents, and more to continue to help their children emotionally. I didn’t have a father, but I had a strong family support system. Regardless of lack of money, a majority of my students who succeed have strong support systems at home. I personally feel that goes as long of a way, if not, more so than just being born in Westchester or in the suburbs or going to the best schools in the area.

It’s not just “enough” to be born in the right place (suburbs of Chicago) or going to the right schools. Like a majority of us, due to your family’s ability to sustain you as you were growing up, you got where you are today. I wished you would have written more about that particular privilege and expanded on it a little, instead of focusing on money, Facebook, and iPhones.