Having a moral conscience is harmful to your wallet; it urges you to fight for social justice, often at the expense of a lucrative career. For this reason, I wish that I were not held back by the mortgage of guilt in the inequality and destitution that I see in society. Although I have little sympathy for adults who make bad choices and end up on the short end of life, I cannot help but feel despair for those born into poor circumstances or saddled with bad luck in life. But why should I care about the welfare of strangers? I am not burdened by the guilt of privilege. I am neither tall, nor white, nor rich, nor blessed with beauty — traits that confer positive rewards to their owners. If anything, the world has left me to die — literally and figuratively — more than once in my life (but I'm still kicking, although the lack of NHL hockey on TV is making me go insane!). Why should I fight against policies that will hurt the poor? Regressive measures would have hurt me when I was young, when I was growing up as a poor immigrant child, but now…
