[mercer]

I think the distinction between how you see yourself and how you see others is particularly important, and I find that it's often conflated when I have arguments about things like poverty.

Attributing things too much to luck in your own endeavours might lead to learned helplessness, among other things. Whereas assuming that the bum on the streets quite possibly got into his predicament because of bad luck seems like a safer and more compassionate assumption to make.

But factually speaking, I'd say much more than we'd like to admit is out of our control, which is one of the reasons why I am in favor of societies with strong safety nets and hefty base-line of compassion.