Comments on: Equal Chances for Equal Talent

By: Cookies

Cookies — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:12:53 +0000

Good blog.

By: Cookies

Cookies — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:12:53 +0000

Good blog.

By: Not a controversy «

Not a controversy « — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:37:43 +0000

[...] (and I’m a freakin’ libertarian!). Ensuring perfect equality of opportunity may be a chimera, but given the United States’ legacy of institutional and social discrimination, a [...]

By: pedro

pedro — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:08:05 +0000

Stuart, you need more than a corelation to get a causal effect. Some countries may look equal simply because of the effects of the tax system on actual incomes and incentives for effort.

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:20:26 +0000

sus - in the case you describe, I actually feel sorry for those kids. Whatever their parents are giving them, it doesn't include the ability to stand on their own two feet, and write their own uni papers. My parents didn't buy me a car or a condo or a credit card, but at least I got enough of an education at school to get a degree without relying on my parents doing the work, and I can get jobs without my parents' help - things the young people you describe lack. (And of course, since I actually had to learn the material for my degrees, I have enough information stashed away in my head to allow for hours of mental occupation). I think you are wrong in asserting that these kids had everything. They strike me as seriously lacking.

Others, because of financial situations and/or geography did not. Do they not deserve a chance?

Well, there's a problem of scale here. We can't expect an entire society to function like the family in your example does, some people actually need to learn how to do things directly. Do you want every one in the country to be able to get through medical school with their mum doing all the work? What happens when mum drops dead - who will train the next generation if no young person ever needs to do their own work at university?

People say that it's due to lack of education that some folks don't succeed, yet they don't want to extend any help to those who are not in a position to get that education.

Who, exactly, are these people who don't want to extend any help to those who are not in a position to get that education? Government spending on schools strikes me as one of the most popular forms of government spending there is, and as stated above, scholarships are a common form of private charity.

I also note again that the 2 young people you describe are not apparently getting an education, instead their mum is.

By: jeannine

jeannine — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:53:17 +0000

One of the best solutions would be for higher education and training for all citizens.Access to unions for all and eliminate the unpaid internships{who but the wealthy can afford to work for free?}.

By: thisniss

thisniss — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:47:46 +0000

Equality of outcome is not measurable, nor attainable. Equal access to opportunity is easier to achieve. The clearest example you give is with a legacy student versus a merit scholarship student. The very existence of merit scholarships (and of “affirmative action” in, particularly, academic settings) is to counter-balance the inherent *unfairness* of “legacy” (or, as you would say, “network”) access to opportunities. That's not actually a difficult thing to explain, to measure, nor to implement.

Anyone who wishes to argue that it “hasn't worked” needs to review the past fifty years in our country. How many new members of the middle class were granted entry because they “earned in” via the commitment to equality-of-opportunity born in the civil rights era? Our middle class has grown more as a result of this commitment than at any other time in US history – and the necessity of “legacy” connections had diminished, until the reversals of the Heritage Foundation Supremes led by Scalia coupled with the “deregulation” fanaticism of the new Right leadership in Congress to cordon off access to opportunities for those outside their approved networks. And… here we all are again.

By: Alan

Alan — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:00:07 +0000

Surely Plato did a better job of following this train of thought in The Republic? According to him, you need to raise the children of the powerful in orphanages to ensure that network effects won’t inefficiently assign powerful jobs to the (unqualified) children of the powerful.

Frankly, when something sounds stupid coming from Plato, it is doubtful it will sound smart coming from anyone else.

By: anon

anon — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:29:54 +0000

it's *supposed* to be a “huge boon to kids with no connections or resources who are zoned to bad high schools”. (these are mostly minority schools.) in reality, we have seen a reverse white flight, where parents move and enroll their kids in a lesser performing school so that their student will be in the top 10%.

By: stuart

stuart — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 22:37:42 +0000

'True equality of opportunity is unachievable'
Noone claims it is achievable, however that does not mean its not a worthy goal