I wrestle with having an increasingly narrow view of the extent to which people exercise free will, and having an increasingly cynical view of the social structures we have in place to help the poor. I agree with 'bane: the marshmallow impulse control experiment says a lot. So what gets to me is the sanctimony. If I were born as one of those kids who couldn't resist the marshmallow for 10 seconds: 1) how much if my outcome is the result of my own choices? 2) how is spending more money on education going to help?
You are in luck: followup research shows that kids with impulse control (er, patience) came from stable families with safe predictable behavior, and less patient kids came from families with unstable environments and adults who weren't reliable. In fact, the kids were roughly equally rational with respect to the environments they grew up in.
