For the record, I fully agree that a lot of poverty out there is systemic. Look at North Korea, maybe contrast it to South Korea then try to tell me that they don't have widespread systemic poverty. Look at the latest garden-variety tin-pot dictatorship in Africa or elsewhere and try to tell me the same thing. The individual alone explains pretty much zilch; every single one of us in the developed West is living in an incredibly complex society featuring a huge variety of institutional arrangements of all kinds.
There's no reason to think that these institutional factors don't affect social and economic outcomes; indeed, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary! (And it would be just as arrogant to think that the institutional arrangements prevailing in a random Western country as of 02022 are already "optimized" in any sense. So yes, there is room for some meaningful improvement.)
There's no reason to think that these institutional factors don't affect social and economic outcomes; indeed, there's plenty of evidence to the contrary! (And it would be just as arrogant to think that the institutional arrangements prevailing in a random Western country as of 02022 are already "optimized" in any sense. So yes, there is room for some meaningful improvement.)