Hillbilly Elegy

I grew up in a world where everyone
worried about how they’d pay for
Christmas. Now I live in one where
opportunities abound for the wealthy and
privileged to shower their generosity on
the community’s poor. Many prestigious
law firms sponsor an “angel program,”
which assigns a child to a lawyer and
provides a wish list of gifts. Usha’s
former courthouse encouraged judicial
employees to adopt a kid for the
holidays—each a child of someone who
previously went through the court
system. Program coordinators hoped that
if someone else purchased presents, the
child’s parents might feel less tempted to
commit crimes in order to provide. And