故事里的穷孩子The Poor Kids in the Stories
小时候读的很多故事，把有钱人家的孩子都说成是白痴，而穷人家的孩子则大多勤劳、勇敢、聪明。
这是很大的误导。
贫穷让人羁绊于俗务，为斗米折腰，手停口就停，所以特别好管。只要有口饭吃，就会乖乖听话。在某种程度上改变人类历史的人，大多出身于富裕家庭。即使是闹*革*命这件事，光脚的也不如穿鞋的。
Many of the stories I read as a child made the children of rich families out to be idiots, while the children of poor families were mostly hardworking, brave, and clever.
That is profoundly misleading.
Poverty shackles people to the daily grind: they bow and scrape for a peck of rice, and the moment the hands stop, the mouth goes hungry, which makes them wonderfully easy to manage. As long as there is a mouthful of food, they will do as they are told. The people who changed human history to any real degree mostly came from wealthy families. Even in the business of making *revo*lution, the barefoot are no match for the well-shod.
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