Being surrounded by people who had their parents paying for everything – people who thought it was weird that I didn’t go on all those ski-ing vacations with them etc – sure made me appreciate the things that I did have even more.

Geez, I had the opposite reaction. I hated those punks! I'll never forget a Christmas where I was so destitute that I had to accept a job picking up garbage at a college apartment complex (where sons and daughters of wealthy parents lived). I was there on Christmas morning, and the whole place was deserted. In fact, the only evidence there were people there at all was all the empty liquor bottles and party trash they had tossed all over their complex--that I had to pick up. Imagine my resentment. There I was, a student earning a 4.0 GPA reduced to picking up the trash of punks whose only serious occupation in life was to party and get laid. Beasts, really. About the only times I'd see them was when they went "spinning out" in their big trucks and fancy cars their parents had bought them. They'd usually honk or hoot something unintelligible, like wild monkeys in a jungle.

Yes, I know that "life's not fair" and so on, but I'll never accept the current system of privilege and advantages that just go with being born into a wealthy family. I don't think it's healthy for either the rich kids (who end up in a truly sad state of mental development) or poor kids (who grow up resenting and despising their "betters"). What's needed is something at least approximating a meritocracy. It's pretty obvious why folks like me tend to enjoy watching Star Trek so much! :-)