I tried to get on and argue against the topic but the way he has it setup is annoying to deal with it, if he had his chat replay enabled I would just copy and past my points from there. Long story short, no, I don't think your financial circumstances are your fault but I approach life as a
hard determinist, I don't believe in free will and hardly give way to compatibilism. I just wanted to bring that argument up to see how he responded, taking issue with the "your fault" part of the argument, and stretching it out to other positions to see if he would hold true to the argument.
For example, using a war stricken territory:
1. Is it your fault that you were born in that country stricken with war?
2. Is it your fault that war is ongoing in your country?
3. Is it your fault that you are subjected to the ills of war?
4. Is it your fault if the war directly impacts you and leaves you homeless, handicapped, or worse, death?
1-4 with causences following the previous circumstance. And with that, the lack of agency you have over the following points given the severity of the previous ones.
And it would pair with:
1. Is it your fault that you were born to a poor family (Your family's income is one of the if not the most consistent predictor of your future income in life)
2. Is it your fault that the environment your family lives in is stricken with poverty? ( Access to better education, especially something as simple as pre-k, access to extracurricular activities, public libraries, smaller class rooms, job location and opportunities) I can go on and on
3. Is it your fault that your environment (following 1&2) have now lead to you being subjected to the ills of it? (Statically speaking, all I have listed above are great predictors for determining where you will end up in life financially, there are obviously exceptions to the rule but most will not break these predictors.)
4. Now is it your fault that you are now, lower class, in debt, are financially illiterate, turned to crime, possibly imprisoned, have a financially crippling medical situation? ( I can go on and on, but the previous predictors are also strong predictors for what follows on this line)
So with that, no, it is not your fault, from my perspective. Of course this doesn't mean you can't be assisted or guided towards making better decisions, hopefully these things cross your path and make an impact at some point in time. So while I respect the advice he offers people, I don't much care for his approach to life. A lot of people make it places, a give little for what got them there, it's just lazy, lacking empathy, and does nothing to help others in worse predicaments. But I understand what leads people to think like that.
