I'm not trying to guilt anybody into taking action. I'm not suggesting that because everybody in the country isn't a hundred percent hunky-dory, you're not allowed to enjoy yourself. Thousands of people across the country are caring and sympathetic, and volunteers in every city unfailingly devote themselves, year after year, to distributing Thanksgiving food and cheer to those who cannot obtain it themselves. I salute them. At the same time, however, I worry that we have come to expect volunteer efforts to somehow compensate for a severe defect in our social structure.
Structural problems demand structural solutions.
Millennial America is a country suffering from bipolar disorder. At the same time we endure a level of wretched excess that would shame even the most flamboyant Gilded Age tycoon, we also have millions who can't afford to buy a decent biography of Morgan. Think about that as you push yourself away from your Thanksgiving table. Think of the poor shmo who's never had the chance to groan gluttonously in his life, the old man who must spend his Thanksgiving in a cold municipal shelter, friendless. MIT is a campus full of problem-solvers.