Life can never be nor should ever be without friction, pain, and challenge. However, in developed and wealthy nations, we’ve done a remarkable job stripping away the worst and providing opportunities to those who wish to flourish.

To say some people could have avoided poverty is considered uncouth or discompassionate. To say most people could have done so paints one as a heartless conservative. It doesn’t stop it from being correct in a relevant sense.

In a country like England or Germany, there is a straightforward and highly effective way of avoiding poverty, the Success Sequence:

1. Finish secondary education.
2. Get a full-time job when you finish school.
3. Get married before you have children.

98 out of 100 people who follow these steps are not poor by the age of about 30.

Blame is a dirty word, and we’re right to hesitate before using it. Without it, we lose one of our most powerful levers in changing behaviour. Holding people responsible for stupid and counter-productive decisions is a powerful means by which we incentivise them to make more sensible decisions.

Contrary to the rhetoric, there are plenty of opportunities for full-time work. Ensuring you have a foundational education and the freedom from single parenthood to get it is crucial. Each individual is most responsible for themselves, and reminding them of this by being stern in the face of self-created deprivation is ultimately more helpful than unearned sympathy.

I don’t believe in free will, but I appreciate systems. A society that abides by laziness and imprudence produces less functional humans. Each person has potential: in one environment with particular norms, they might actuate it, while in another, they may not. Let’s create the former.