It also wouldn't say anything definitive about luck vs skill anyway. If smart people become richer they will be able to live in nicer neighborhoods. When smart

It also wouldn't say anything definitive about luck vs skill anyway. If smart people become richer they will be able to live in nicer neighborhoods. When smart people have kids they are more likely to be smart. Which by assumption means they are more likely to turn out rich themselves. So childhood zip code certainly could correlate with future earned wealth even in a perfect meritocracy. Obviously this is not the case in reality, factors like access to education play a big role. But disentangling everything is complicated, and I think a lot of people instead just work backwards from the parts they want to be true.