Yours is the philosophy that has led U.S. to citizens to place so much emphasis on monetary success that most are unflinchingly willing to transcend honesty and ethics in order to get ahead. A society that instructs that success and failure are entirely products of personal effort is doomed to the sort of corruption and self-invited demise that we are presently witnessing on Wall Street and in the executive offices of our largest corporations.

My observation is that the vast majority of the attorneys you would consider to be successful are from affluent families. It would be difficult to argue that such fortunate beginnings provide those attorneys an advantage in affording a top law school, and often in gaining admission thereto.

Conversely, I had the misfortune of being born into an impoverished family, no member of which had ever attended university. Following law school, I struggled in my career and lost several jobs until, at age 38, I discovered that I had been battling Type I Bipolar Disorder since college.

If you honestly believe that there is no such thing as good and bad luck, I submit that belief is grounded in ignorance and conservative American superstition. Nearly every other Western nation recognizes that the correlation between success and personal virtue is far less certain than conservative ideology instructs, and that luck is more often than not a contributing factor in individual success.

Thanks for the info!