> Are they to blame

I think we’ve become so afraid of giving the impression of victim-blaming people who are down on their luck that we’re afraid to acknowledge that people can and do work their way into better life circumstances.

Even if we think of luck as the central determinant of a person’s success in life, then we still have to acknowledge that the person’s own choices and actions will pivot their destiny around that luck. Licking in to a dream job through connections and serendipity doesn’t go very far if someone decides not to put in the effort required to succeed at the job, for example.

Maybe where you are from but here in eastern Europe you can get a cushy job and work at 20% of effort and live an upper middle class life just from 1 good connection. Then you can work you ass off in college but in the wrong industry where there are no "well paid jobs for hard working people" around where you are and live a barely middle class life. The sad part is people do succeed from here by working hard but byoving away to where the job is, often half a world away, leaving behind everything, friends, family. Did they work hard and "succeed"? Yes, but at what cost. Meanwhile lucky people were born at the right time in the right family. We should both equalize the starting positions and especially make sure your lowest low still gives you medical insourance, a place to stay and food to eat. At least it's laughable how many people in USA don't have proper health care

> if someone decides not to put in the effort required to succeed at the job

I read this rhetoric constantly, then I look at a bunch of hard working people that I know, who are poor.

Luck is the opportunity to succeed, hard work is the way to capitalize on that opportunity. One without the other means no success. And on that same note, you can make "good decision" that cause you to miss out on amazing opportunities, and "bad decisions" that end you up in with great opportunities.

I've made plenty of decisions that I thought at the time were kinda dumb, but put me in serendipitous situations which ended up landing me great jobs. So really, the luckier you are, the more chances you'll have to escape poverty; if you're willing to work hard at those critical times, you'll actually succeed.