Quote Originally Posted by BanginJimmy View Post
This is true on an individual level, but on the institutional level everyone has the same opportunity. It doesnt matter if you grew up in the projects or the Hamptons. You may not be able to take the same route, but you can get to the same destination. A good example from my life would be the CEO of the company I work for. He couldnt afford college after HS so we spent 4 years in the Marine Corps first. He just retired as the CEO of one of the largest multinational corporations in the world. One that does about 45bil a year in sales.
Yeah I totally agree. I guess it's the term "equal opportunity" that causes confusion. It is theoretically possible that the daughter of a militant Islamic crackhead could grow up to become president of the US but I don't consider such a person to have "equal opportunity" to do so as say, George W. Bush. Even if they had equal levels of intelligence, industriousness, and drive. I not saying we should expect such perfect opportunities between such different origins either, but some barriers are manufactured through personal and institutional bias that should be broken down.