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He rarely communicates with the family, except when he’s in trouble.
By Kwame Anthony Appiah
Kwame Anthony Appiah has been the The New York Times Magazine’s Ethicist columnist since 2015 and teaches philosophy at N.Y.U.
My husband is the middle of five siblings. The three oldest were high achievers who earned advanced degrees and are now comfortably retired, living far from their hometown. The fourth, a brother, has struggled all his life. After four years in the Army, he drifted between unemployment and low-paying jobs, never able to support himself. His parents covered his expenses or let him live with them, even paying for his car while he worked as a pizza-delivery driver. He also developed substance-abuse problems.
