I often think about the stark difference in outcomes between American[0] and immigrant kids that I went to high school with, 20+ years post graduation.

A big differentiating factor is that the immigrant kids - I am sure with a lot of influence from their parents - were willing to take on just a bit more work than their American peers. Try for the harder classes, try for the more selective college, try for the more rigorous major, etc. Nothing seemingly extraordinary but just a series of choices, at each step being willing to put in a bit more work than one could superficially get away with.

Consequently, the immigrant kids "fell into" careers in law, medicine, engineering, etc. at much higher rates than our American friends and their lives resemble the classic American dream: good job, nice house, bunch of kids. To be fair, a bunch of the Americans I grew up with achieved the same thing - still impressive although they started with a ton of advantage over us immigrants. But the rate of immigrant kids' success dwarfed this.

In retrospect, the immigrant belief in the connection between input and output - and perhaps this being less clear to our American friends - made a tremendous amount of difference. Our American pals had the same opportunities and could even go after them much easier, but they just didn't have the same motivation to kick their own ass to launch themselves a few rungs higher.

The culture of cultivating talent and being willing to put in work was a "secret" weapon of these immigrant families, and itself was a cultural attribute of the countries we had come from. And of course it's also very much the historic American ethos although in 2023 it seems gauche to speak to the virtue of working harder - I am sure this post is going to be controversial, for example.

The inability of the culture to sing the virtues of work openly has got to be a net negative, at least for those who take it seriously. The more traditional families are still teaching these values to their kids behind closed doors. And I am pretty sure that while there has always been a large group of folks not interested in working and certainly not in excellence through work, I suspect this group has a greater share of the public "voice" than ever before.

There's a classic Futurama quote: "no one drove in NY, too much traffic" and I think of it often when someone says that you can't get ahead or afford a life nowadays. While that message is popular, it kinda misses the question of: who do you think is bidding up these houses? Why do you think there's a waiting list for the pre-schools? etc. Who do you think is buying these family sedans and minivans? People don't often talk about "actually, I worked hard and it paid off" but it's kinda all around us if you look.

To be fair, there's no guarantee of success in life. You can work your ass off and get nowhere, especially if you work on the wrong thing. But there's definitely a guarantee of failure if you don't work, and it's sad to see people locking themselves into that.

[0] when I say American, I mean kids of Italian, Irish, and black ancestry who were born in the US. The immigrant kids were Russians and Asians primarily.