Accident of geography determines one’s condition in life

I have recently been re-thinking about geography, in the context of patriotism and nationalism. There is perhaps no factor as important in determining one’s condition in life than the accident of where you are born. The geography of your birth supersedes talent, intelligence or hard work. Talent, intelligence and effort do not discriminate based on ethnicity, race, gender or sexual orientation. But geography discriminates and is made worse by the fiction of national borders.

In the US, a person’s likelihood to be accepted in college, join the middle class, avoid a criminal record and even their lifespan is affected by their zip code, which is the code given to particular areas across the US, mainly for purposes of mail delivery.