His mother was addicted to drugs; he never knew his father. He grew up shuttling among foster homes, where he started drinking beer around age 5 and smoking marijuana at age 9. At age 17 he watched a drunk friend kick a dog off a cliff and knew he had to escape. Henderson found that these ideas came to serve as status symbols for the privileged while they, ironically, kept the working class down. He came to call these ideas luxury beliefs.

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Persons: Robert Putnam, “ Rich, ” Rob Henderson, Henderson, Bill, Foster Organizations: Harvard, Air Force, Yale, Cambridge, Foster Care Locations: Americas