The person I was replying to started the comment chain from an abhorrent position of Social Darwinism. Failing to see their privilege, and failing to distinguish their lives from their grandparents' is very common for people holding those opinions.
Attributing that success to strict parenting and hard work requires quite a lot of extra argument, which the thread starter does not have. Refusing humanity of people who were not on the flight, and did not achieve the same success, is something else entirely.
Being on the flight wasn't my achievement, it was my grandfather's and my father's. Having that type of achievement to emulate may in fact be a form of privilege, but what would you do, strip the world of it entirely?