But experience can be a difficult teacher, and it taught me that this story of economic insecurity is, at best, incomplete. - JD Vance

This is just one version of how the world of successful people actually works. But social capital is all around us. Those who tap into it and use it prosper. Those who don’t are running life’s race with a major handicap. This is a serious problem for kids like me.

The old adage says that it’s better to be lucky than good. Apparently having the right network is better than both. At

As a 2011 Brookings Institution study found, “compared to 2000, residents of extreme-poverty neighborhoods in 2005–09 were more likely to be white, native-born, high school or college graduates, homeowners, and not receiving public assistance.”12