In three weeks, Ger­many will vote. When I decide where to place my vote, one thing mat­ters most: Which par­ty rep­re­sents a vision of soci­ety that acknowl­edges a fun­da­men­tal truth—who we become is large­ly shaped by cir­cum­stances beyond our con­trol. Our intel­li­gence, resilience, and tal­ents may feel per­son­al, but they are, to a sig­nif­i­cant extent, the result of fac­tors we nev­er chose: our genet­ics, the qual­i­ty of our edu­ca­tion, the finan­cial secu­ri­ty of our par­ents, the coun­try we were born in. Even our abil­i­ty to work hard and per­se­vere is shaped by ear­ly child­hood expe­ri­ences and social conditioning.