College Admissions Cheating Racket

[Dill]

(03-13-2019, 01:39 PM)Benton Wrote: Agreed. If it does.

But, in fairness, it's not like most of the Ivy League schools weren't already shuttering the poor.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/college-mobility/yale-university

Using Yale as an example, the bottom 20% of income earners make up 2% of their population, while the top 20% of earners make up nearly 3-out-of-4 students. 

The rich have access to things the poor don't. That's not a huge problem. In terms of schools like Yale, it's not a big deal, as it really doesn't make you a better lawyer, doctor, whatever if you came from one of those schools. It just means you most likely had your future handed to you.

The problem is the greater access of wealth to governance, which is a different issue. A lot of the issues we have are because people are dumb enough to think rich people are better leaders just because they're rich. Which is why an income bracket with 5% of the people makes decisions that impact the other 95% of the people.

I agree with most of this. Though if I were hiring a lawyer though, especially for a law firm, I would expect a better product from Yale than most other schools in the lower three quartiles, if only because the get the cream to work with in the first place, and then expose them to first rate professors.

The articles, I think, connect wealth to governance via access to elite schools. That is not the only route, of course, the most direct being to simply pay lobbyists and contribute to campaigns.  When it comes to distributing ambassadorships--both sides do it.

All people don't buy the "rich=smart" equation. But certainly enough did in the last election to make it a serious problem. 
I wonder if there is any other country on earth where the rich are so admired by the not-so-rich.