Do you feel lucky? You probably don't. You may think you've got where you are today through willpower and hard work. We tend to overlook luck's role,and this seems to get worse the richer we get; surveys show that the wealthiest are least likely to owe their fortunes to good fortune. Many such people oppose taxation  and government spending: why should others get a handout  if they don't need one? More often than not,they vote against the very policies that helped them get lucky to begin with. In a recent Atlantic essay,Robert Frank,an economist who has studied attitudes to chance,quoted  EB White: "Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men." However, if we see this just as a problem of the super-rich people,we may let the rest of us off too easily. Anyone living in a highly developed economy in 2016 is already the one who benefits from luck--for example,not living in the modern-day Central African Republic, where few people can live a long life. In fact,we are lucky to have been born human. You might have been a battery hen,or a mayfly with only one day to live. Our blindness to such truths isn't only because we're self-absorbed but also we attach more significance to things that are easier to call to mind. It's not hard to recall countless times when you put in the effort to succeed: struggling through university finals,preparing for job interviews,tolerating a long-distance travel to work. On the other hand,it's rather difficult to realize you're privileged--like not being born in a war zone,or before antibiotics ,and so forth. According to the author,you are fortunate if you are not_.
struggling through university finals preparing for interviews tolerating a long distance travel living in a war zone