The lack of meaningful systemic mitigation for "bad luck" is what I'm talking about with "punishment". It's why I quoted the word. You're drawing a stricter meaning than I think is apparent in my position, and making a semantic dodge around it.

At the end of the day, someone's life is still wrecked through no fault of their own, and "the system" — which is us — just stands there, all, "Sucks to be you."

Fwiw, I'm all for systems that mitigate bad luck. It's just that... these systems are large, have been in place for a long time, and have immense amounts of inertia. Which is not to say we shouldn't try to change them!

I think we've been agreeing right past one another, then. I'm reminded of the Joe Rogan quote to the effect that "the sooner we can all realize we've been taught how to live life from people operating on the momentum of an ignorant past" (or however it's phrased), the better off we'll all be.