Having lived as a baby in his drug-addicted mother’s car, and having been shuttled between nine families before his eighth birthday, Rob Henderson, now 34, was a troubled boy who could have become a troubled adult. Instead, he became a Yale graduate earning a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His autobiography, “Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class,” is drawing fresh attention to a familiar phenomenon that he calls “luxury beliefs.” The book also reveals that the deprivations of his childhood somehow gave him an acute, unenthralled understanding of what economists call “positional goods.”George Will’s email address is georgewill@washpost.com. Read the full opinion at washingtonpost.com.

Source: Washington Post March 07, 2024 13:10 UTC