3 ms·
> The real cause of inequality is privileged parents trying to tilt the scales for their kids and their social class. I really don’t think this is true in a me
by doctor_eval 3y ago
> The real cause of inequality is privileged parents trying to tilt the scales for their kids and their social class.
I really don’t think this is true in a meaningful way. Despite your appeal to cannibalism (of all things), it certainly is natural for people to want to help their family and friends. Without that instinct, we have neither.
Whatever the solution to inequality, it will need to take into account that people like helping people they like. This is why social programs like free healthcare and education are so important - we need to neutralise the benefit of “tilting the scales”, rather than asking people to change perfectly reasonable behaviour.
- eschaton 3y agoThere’s a gulf of difference between “helping family and friends” and, say, allowing legacy admissions at the universities that feed the majority of the highest status jobs in our society, or even allowing public schools to falter (much less *be intentionally sabotaged*) because some people can afford a private education for their children.
- doctor_eval 3y agoI completely agree with you. I am absolutely not arguing against policies intended to level the playing field - quite the opposite, I think that everyone should be allowed the opportunity to thrive regardless of age, identity, class, health, or anything else. My point is that the desire to “tilt the scales for their kids and their social class” seems innate, and any mechanism that we create to improve equality needs to take this into account at a fundamental level, or it will either be rejected or compromised.