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> If both students apply to a job or college, should their final academic grades be treated equally? Yes. Grades reflect what the student did, which is a disti
by MockObject 4y ago
> If both students apply to a job or college, should their final academic grades be treated equally?
Yes. Grades reflect what the student did, which is a distinct question from why they were able to do it.
- gadders 4y ago"In the UK, a low ability child from a high income family is 35% more likely to be a high earner than a high ability child from a low income family." You cool with that too?
- MockObject 4y agoIsn't that one of the chief goals of accumulating wealth? Being able to offer their children more opportunity?
- gadders 4y agoDepends what it is. If it's "more opportunity because you inherited my house when I died" - fair enough. If it's "more opportunity because I got my mate Dave to hire you over other more qualified candidates" then that's shit.
- MockObject 4y agoBut we're discussing people being additionally qualified by accident of birth, having afforded them opportunities, and not because Dave met someone in a pub last year. Is it "shit" that Liza Minelli had a great head-start in her entertainment career by being Judy Garland's daughter?
- gadders 4y ago>>Is it "shit" that Liza Minelli had a great head-start in her entertainment career by being Judy Garland's daughter? Of course it is. Same goes for all the other nepo babies.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoThe wealthy are simply more meritorious by virtue of being born into wealth.
- MockObject 4y agoSome people are "lucky" enough to be born into nicer circumstances than others, which make them more suited for certain pursuits. How is that even worth mentioning, when it's the universal condition of humanity everywhere, and at all times?
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoI'm just making the implicit explicit. I'm not sure why you put quotes around luck. > when it's the universal condition of humanity everywhere, and at all times? Doesn't it make sense to question or try to change these assumptions? Or are things fine the way they are?
- MockObject 4y agoThe quotes, because luck implies counterfactual outcomes. You're lucky if you miss a car accident by a minute, but it's not clear that you could have been born as someone else, because then you wouldn't be you, and that's nonsensical. > Doesn't it make sense to question or try to change these assumptions? Or are things fine the way they are? Pretty much every new government since the US or French revolutions have tried, and the outcomes have been less than ideal. Inequality is a constant feature of human society that cannot be engineered away.
- SketchySeaBeast 4y agoFair enough regarding the luck, but it is events beyond your control that, through no effort of your own, have massively influenced your ability to turn out well. I'm unsure how we can reconcile that with the idea that people find their positions solely through their own merit, unless we assume, like I did originally, that being born wealth makes you more meritorious. > Pretty much every new government since the US or French revolutions have tried, and the outcomes have been less than ideal. Are you saying that people in the United States were less free? Or just the same as they were before?