On Opportunity

A Little Child Shall Lead Them, William Strutt, 1890

​
​> Is everyone responsible for their own success because opportunities are equal?

• Some people start with more societal capital
  • Intact family, access to knowledge, money, health, etc.
    • These were inherited
      • This traces back through generational privilege
        • Often legal codification
          • Red-lining, segregation
    • Economic systems design leverages societal capital
      • Housing market creates higher-income-segregated communities
        • Safer, cleaner
        • models of leveraging and networking opportunities
          • more models for pro-social behaviors
          • less need for anti-social (escape) behaviors
      • High-income employment opportunities as norm
      • Capital can be invested to receive dividends
• Example: White child raised in 2 parent home, both parents educated, high income professions.  Less stress and more money for reinforcing activities and buffering life events.  High income neighborhood means schools filled with other privileged children, higher attainment.  Pro-social models for leveraging the wealth family already has.  College and high-income jobs easier to attain.  Child marries within class/race and passes privilege on to children.

 

• Some people start with less societal capital
  • Broken family, little knowledge, little money, poor health, etc.
    • These were inherited
      • This traces back through generational marginalization
        • Often legal codification
          • Red-lining, segregation,
          • Skill-based immigration
            • Low capital vs. high capital immigrants
    • Economic systems design deleverages lack of societal capital
      • Housing market created lower-income-segregated communities
        • Unsafe, dirtier, fewer resources
        • Few models for leveraging or networking
          • More models for anti-social (escape) behavior
          • Fewer models for pro-social behavior
      • High-income employment opportunities hard to access
        • Low-income employment opportunities as norm
      • Little capital to invest and receive dividends
• Example: Black child raised in single parent home, mother uneducated, low-wage job.  More stress and little money to buffer life events.  Low-income neighborhood means schools filled with other marginalized children, lower attainment.  Fewer pro-social models for leveraging wealth that family doesn’t have anyway.  More anti-social models for escaping stress and harsher life/environment.  Few models for educational attainment and other students often disruptive and acting out in class, low-wage jobs are the norm and modeled, high-wage/professional jobs more difficult to reach.  Child marries within class/race and passes little privilege on to children.

 

• Each of these statistical variables can be derived from extensive available social research and journalism that defines, categorizes and is able to predict each’s impact on the individual.
  • E.g. the presence of one factor is an independent variable if it can be demonstrated to impact another variable (dependent) in a given group.

 
 
 
> Behaviors are learned from our environment.  Both what is modeled for us and what resources we can access.  You can’t play piano, speak another language, etc. without the opportunity for people to teach you.  You can’t take piano or language lessons if you don’t have the money or of no one is available to teach you.

• A social experiment exists: Group A is high income/SES, and Group B (control) is low-income/SES
  • 100 kids in each group
  • If you select any number of socially independent variables (see above), each will impact the success rate (dependent variable) of the child
  • We know this.

 
> Why do some marginal cases succeed despite socially independent variables for marginalization (dependent) (e.g. poor, broken home, parent education, etc.)

• There is always something in the environment that counters the negative social effects.
  • E.g. the family was broken but extended family support was there; friend circle happened to include pro-social role-models; the individual was born with dispositional traits that allowed better navigation through difficult events (e.g. not quick to anger, ability to focus, physical health, ease with picking up social cues, etc.)
  • Pure luck often plays a big role in any number of ways as a more positive environmental stimuli just happened to be available

> As in any structural analysis, the outlier does not prove the rule.  If you win at the casino, it does not mean that everyone can win at the casino; most people will lose.  The machines are designed such that only a small percentage will pay out.  The small percentage is proof not that everyone will win, but rather the opposite – that most will lose.
 
> Our society has built in economic structures (real estate, professional wages, reliance upon education for future earnings, etc.) that require/ force a certain percentage of people into poor neighborhoods and low wage jobs.

• This can be changed by redesigning our economic and legal policies such as redistributing income/progressive taxation, support for institutions that equalize wages (unions, regulation), etc.

 
> Our culture has built in racial structures (ethnic (white) cultural normalization, media role-models, etc.) that require/force a certain percentage of people into wealthier neighborhoods and high-wage jobs.

• This can be changed through redesigning our cultural responses (dialogue, education, media, journalism, etc.)

 
> Until both economic and cultural systems are changed, hierarchies will continue to be perpetuated. 

• Evidence of this will be that you take any set of 100 kids and compare them to any other set of kids in society, on average their life successes will be roughly the same.
  • By race, family background, wealth, etc.
• Currently, all evidence indicates that this is far from the case, especially with regard to race and class.

 
> Unequal outcomes with equal opportunities is not possible. 

• Humans are statistically all of average ability
• If opportunities are equal, we should see no statistical difference between any randomly selected groups
• As noted above, many socially determining independent variables exist. Many are obvious – if a child’s parents provide more cognitive enrichment (independent variable), then his school readiness (dependent variable) will be greater than if they provide less cognitive enrichment.
• The number of independent variables in an individual’s that impact their success (dependent variable) are huge.
  • However, if identified, these independent variables can be either eliminated or mitigated by the addition of different variables.
  • E.g. A child’s poor home life could either be improved by parents earning a higher wage, or mitigated by the presence of a smaller class at school or a social worker or school counselor.
  • *** Some independent variables are responsible for cascading effects.
    • They produce additional variables that also impact the dependent variable
      • E.g. a low income makes it difficult to purchase cognitive/emotionally enhancing vacation or to weather life events such as transportation or health issues

> Therefore, the existence of unequal outcomes precludes the existence of equal opportunities