We love to divide the world into good people and bad people. Heroes and villains. The righteous and the damned. But what if I told you that the difference between being labeled a “good person” and a “criminal” often has less to do with your choices and more to do with luck?
Welcome to the concept of moral luck – and why it should make us all think twice before judging others.
What Is Moral Luck?
Philosophers use the term “moral luck” to describe situations where factors outside our control significantly influence how we’re judged morally. Here’s a simple example:
Two people drive home after having a few drinks. Both made the same bad choice. One makes it home safely and sleeps it off. The other hits a pedestrian and kills them. Same choice, wildly different outcomes – and wildly different moral judgments from society.
The first person might feel guilty but faces no consequences. The second person is labeled a killer, faces prison time, and carries that stigma forever. But the only difference? Luck.
How This Plays Out in Real Life
Moral luck isn’t just a philosophical thought experiment. It shapes every aspect of how we judge and label people:
Drug Use
Two teenagers experiment with marijuana. One’s parents are wealthy and connected – if caught, they get a warning and maybe therapy. The other is poor, in a heavily policed neighborhood – they get arrested, convicted, and carry a felony record that destroys their job prospects for life.
Same behavior. Different luck. Different life outcomes.
Survival Strategies
During COVID-19 and the economic crisis, millions lost their jobs. Some had savings, family support, or government aid that got them through. Others had to make harder choices – sex work, selling drugs, or other criminalized survival strategies.
Are the people who had to make those choices morally worse? Or were they just less lucky?
The Labels Society Assigns
Here’s what moral luck reveals: the labels we use – “felon,” “dealer,” “criminal” – often say more about someone’s circumstances and luck than about their actual moral character.
Someone branded a “drug dealer” might live by values of honesty, loyalty, and caring for others. Someone celebrated as “successful” might be ruthless, dishonest, and harmful – they just never got caught or were never in circumstances where those choices had legal consequences.
Why This Matters
Understanding moral luck doesn’t excuse harmful behavior. But it should make us:
- More humble in our judgments – “There but for the grace of God go I”
- More skeptical of the criminal justice system – which often punishes bad luck as much as bad choices
- More compassionate toward people who’ve made mistakes or faced consequences
- More focused on actual harm than on arbitrary labels
The Human Duality
Here’s the truth: we all contain the capacity for both good and harmful actions. Which side gets “locked in” publicly often depends on:
- Where you were born
- Your race and class
- Police presence in your neighborhood
- Economic opportunities (or lack thereof)
- Who your parents knew
- Pure random chance
My Story
I spent nearly a decade suffering the consequences of a frivolous marijuana felony. Meanwhile, countless people I know did the same things – or worse – and never faced consequences. The difference? They were luckier.
That experience taught me that the system doesn’t measure morality – it measures luck, privilege, and circumstance.
Judge People By How They Treat Others
Instead of judging people by their official labels or whether they got caught, judge them by how they actually treat other people:
- Are they honest?
- Do they care about consent?
- Do they try to help rather than harm?
- Do they take responsibility when they do cause harm?
These are the real measures of character – not whether the state decided to label them a criminal.
Don’t Be Freedumb
The next time you’re tempted to write someone off because of their record, their survival strategies, or their bad luck – remember moral luck. Remember that most of us are one bad break away from being in their shoes.
And remember: “Don’t be a piece of shit” is a better moral guideline than any legal code.