Hillbilly Elegy

know what they’re looking for: a
magical public policy solution or an
innovative government program. But
these problems of family, faith, and
culture aren’t like a Rubik’s Cube, and I
don’t think that solutions (as most
understand the term) really exist. A good
friend, who worked for a time in the
White House and cares deeply about the
plight of the working class, once told
me, “The best way to look at this might
be to recognize that you probably can’t
fix these things. They’ll always be
around. But maybe you can put your
thumb on the scale a little for the people
at the margins.”
There were many thumbs put on my