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camilo16 t1_itduf6p wrote

There's 2 different concepts you are merging. Merit and access to opportunity.

If I am hiring people based on intelligence and I hire the truly smartest person. That was a meritocratic selection.

If the person is the smartest because they were born to smart parents, got lots of academic support and an environment conductive to learning, that was unequal access to opportunity relative to other people.

A system can both be meritocratic and have a large disparity in access to opportunity, the concepts are totally orthogonal.

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