Hillbilly Elegy

happens when you work hard and get an
education. It means, essentially, that
everything that made it possible for me,
Lindsay, Gail, Jane Rex, and Aunt Wee
to find some measure of happiness is
missing. So I wasn’t surprised that
Mormon Utah—with its strong church,
integrated communities, and intact
families—wiped the floor with Rust
Belt Ohio.
There are, I think, policy lessons to
draw from my life—ways we might put
our thumb on that all-important scale.
We can adjust how our social services
systems treat families like mine.
Remember that when I was twelve I
watched Mom get hauled away in a