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Influencers and the rich are killing belief in hard work — but I’m living proof that anyone can make it in this country
I was born into poverty. My mother, an immigrant from Seoul, suffered from drug addiction. When police and social workers arrived at our slum apartment in Los Angeles in 1993, she told them she didn’t know who my father was. I was three. It wasn’t until I reached 31 that I learnt I am half Mexican on my father’s side.
After being taken from my mother, I grew up in foster homes in California.
As a teenager, I worked as a busboy, a dishwasher and a supermarket bagger. At 17, I enlisted in the US air force.
After leaving the military, I attended Yale with the support of the GI Bill, where I earned a degree in psychology.
I later completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge as a Gates scholar. My first book became a national bestseller and was named one of the best books of 2024 by The Economist. The New York Times once described me as “self-made” and despite my uneasiness with that phrasing, I can’t fully deny it.
My story is what people often mean when they talk about the American Dream. Someone starts with very little and, through effort, opportunity and a bit of good fortune, builds a better life. Today, I am living proof that it’s possible to overcome hardship to achieve traditional success. It’s a promise that this country still offers, and continues to deliver.
By most broad measures, Americans today are better educated, live longer and have more disposable income than previous generations.
So why, as this country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, do so few Americans believe the dream is available to everyone?
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Times
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Rob Henderson is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. He has a PhD in psychology from the University of Cambridge and is the best-selling author of “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class.”