Now, we live in unprecedented peace and abundance (really!),

Right, it’s a “millenium old” problem, which really isn’t that long in terms of human history. Before that, in our hunter-gatherer days, there were far fewer deaths due to human conflict. Even a “war” couldn’t do that much damage. And some groups were so non-violent they didn’t even have words for it.

I’ve got a social skills question. A person I was once friends with, but who stopped putting in any effort FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, is now somewhat frantically trying to get in touch with me. I quietly dropped him like 8 years ago, after being cancelled on for the kajillionth time and generally getting no reciprocation for…

Have people not heard of pet sitters? Kennels? There are some very good ones. They are not cheap, but neither is a ticket for your pet. Even under the best circumstances, flying is very stressful and scary for an animal.

Boy, you’re a sore loser.

Did you work up a sweat moving all those goalposts? Have a Gatorade.

Know where else gets a lot of white South Africans? Australia.

Here’s one.

Next? No, there other cults and suicides etc after Jonestown and before Heaven’s Gate.

Pandering. Even the Indians are sick of it.

Even if all the rich people were evenly distributed by school district, it would be at most a handful at each school. Most American children are going to school with children like themselves.

From all these American teen movies about kids like that, and all the commenters here saying that it’s true. The article suggests that it’s a common experience.

And frankly most Americans are now poor even within the context of American society. Most Americans are just barely getting by and are literally 2 paychecks from homelessness.

This is an excellent point. I’d been thinking it was more about perception anyway. Your classmate’s family might be living in a cheap motel room or even in their car, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it.

OK but what exactly is wrong with his writing? I’m not a fan. Just curious.

Out of 300+M, so like 3%. And we know they are concentrated in certain areas, not evenly distributed. So the math of it is that very, very few Americans can ever experience being the only poor kid in a rich school. It’s nowhere near a common experience. There are just aren’t enough rich schools. And no way no how are…

Excellent comment.

Even the family on Roseanne doesn’t seem poor. Working class and money is tight, but not going without meals or close to losing their house (a house! ). But even that was a rare thing to see on TV.