[Ignitionnet]

With all due Pierre, the luck was having those opportunities presented in the first place. Take exception as you will - I was fortunate enough to have been born with some measure of wit then to have a grammar school locally to attend where I could properly develop that wit.

My career started off slowly then took off as I was employed by ntl via an employee I met, by chance, in an IRC channel who forwarded my CV. I wouldn't have known the job was available if not for that chance meeting.

Making the most of the opportunities is work, doesn't change that in most cases getting them in the first place probably involved some amount of fortune.

EDIT: I would also question that it's only the opposite extreme that have reason for despair. The most obvious reason to despair is stable housing - private rental is the only option for many as the average wage is less than 1/6th the average home and it's tough to build a life knowing you're only guaranteed a place to live for 6 - 12 months at a time. The spending power of the not very impressive wage that many have to look forward to is pretty pathetic too.

It's a measure of how fecked things are that full time workers have to have their income topped up by welfare just to exist - that's the reality facing many youth as even those who can get jobs are finding them minimum wage with few prospects.

My God I really was amazingly lucky once I got to my 20s...

EDIT 2: Meanwhile education is taking some vicious cuts and the NHS, whose budget is over 50% consumed by retirees, is relatively untouched and winter fuel allowance remains uplifted and non-means tested. Resources being taken from the young who we expect to pay for our healthcare etc in the future and given to the old. The young are an easy target after all, they can't vote. Appalling.