Starting conditions are also heavily correlated with the qualities that lead to them, which are both culturally and genetically hereditable. There is also a ch

Starting conditions are also heavily correlated with the qualities that lead to them, which are both culturally and genetically hereditable. There is also a chilling effect where even the people who have the qualities needed to succeed, judge their own chances by the median of their peers, and thus don’t bother in the first place. This is one of the reasons I advocate for big-population standardized tests just a self-assessment tool for students. It won’t help most underprivileged people, but it will at least help the best of them, and get a positive feedback loop going. I myself probably would not have worked hard enough if I did not consistently place high in these tests, as I was from a rather small city, and born with an under-confidence bias.