Thread by @JYuter

1. THREAD: Some thoughts on the college admissions scandal. Aside from the bribery element, which I hope we can all agree is wrong, there's some interesting debate over unfair advantages parents give children. I think this reflects a bigger ideological debate over fairness.

2. Even if affluent parents don't directly bribe universities, they can afford tutoring, extra-curricular activities, or provide any number of opportunities for their children that those of more modest means (let alone poor) cannot.

3. There is certainly an inequality here, but is this inequality necessarily unjust? Well, it depends on how you define what is "just" or "fair."

4. From the perspective of the child, the quality of one's parents is purely a function of luck. This doesn't just apply to one's financial resources, but even loving, attentive, stable, decent people as parents.

5. Children do not choose their home environments nor can they determine how their parents react to them. Some describe this as a "lottery" of birth.

From the perspective of the child, this is entirely a matter of luck, which one can say is unfair.

6. On the other hand, it's not *entirely* a function of luck in the general sense, because their *parents* still have (and always have had) free will.

7. A parent's bad decisions can adversely affect their children, but these aren't "luck" in the purest sense of the word. They're *choices.*

8. One person's bad decisions can affect the decisions for their children going down generations. It might be unlucky to be at the bottom of this chain, but it's still a function of consequence

9. What I see here is that there is an element of resentment of people who have been fortunate enough to perpetuate good fortune to their children. This should be a natural instinct for parents to give their children the best lives possible.

10. We cannot pretend that everyone has the same options available, but people do have the ability to make better or worse choices for themselves or their families.

11. It's clear that financial or social success isn't always correlated with effort or skill. The unworthy succeed while the worthy falter. And it's obvious that having money makes certain things easier.

12. My point is that there are underlying assumptions we're making about the free will of parents and the role of parenting has on children.

13. Speaking for myself, I didn't come from an affluent family, but I was blessed with wonderful parents who instilled values. They didn't come from wealthy families either, but values don't cost money either.

I was lucky, but it was the result of their choices.
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14. Addendum: There are a bunch of studies on the effects of collective parenting from the Israeli kibbutz. The most extreme practice of separating children from parents for sleeping seems to have had negative effects, a reminder that absolute "equality" isn't always "good"