Maybe in tech. Try to run a low skill labour driven business for 15 years. If your default isn't expect bare minimum and hope to be pleasantly surprised you will be on the fast track to an early grave.

We can get into a debate about nature v.s nurture, educational opportunities, systemic poverty and all the other factors that may contribute but the chasm between the highly educated/highly productive and the barely employable has never been greater. For me, the overarching theme is decision making. People who end up successful tend to make good decisions or at least learn from the bad ones they make, while people who struggle all their lives tend to do the same dumb shit over and over in all facets of their life (work, home, health wise, financially).

I can't tell you how many times I hired people for jobs and they just never showed up or showed up for a couple days and never returned, without even the courtesy of a phone call. I can't tell you how many times I woke up to a phone call at 2 or 3am in the morning and had to rush somewhere because someone didn't show up, or did show up did half of what they were supposed to do or screwed something up I had to fix.

Not trying to drag down your optimistic outlook. Just sharing my experience.

I swear, I have to read your thoughtful comments over and over to fully digest them.