Not exactly true, back in feudal times just being able to read was quite a privilege. They also had a lock on information.
We're much more on equal footing in terms of ability to gain information. Whether we act on the information is another issue.
We're much more on equal footing in terms of ability to gain information. Whether we act on the information is another issue.
If you want to be really clever you just give those smart kids who had a bad school environment bonus marks at the university entrance stage and give full scholarships - say just like the elite universities do right now.
I should mention the aim of the rich is not to maximise production, but their share and status. It does not matter if the pie is smaller as long as the size of your slice is larger.
More fundamentally most very smart people realise that they are outliers and that their children are likely to regress to the mean. While the elite welcome the very clever into their club, they also use their power and status to benefit their not so clever children (e.g. legacy students).
What does a family line which has had uninterrupted, exclusive access to a personal library know?
I mean think about it--what is that family like? That family which has held on to the same chunk of physical space, with books and notebooks, for several generations.
"Equal footing in terms of ability to gain information", my ass!
My own toddler gets confused when he tries to describe his home--probably because he's moved three times in as many years.
I remember the encyclopedias I read as a child. But, I don't have them. I can't review them. I can't consult my notes, nor smell them and get connected to the concrete memory of the day I learned about phases of matter or dry cell batteries.
Those things are important. They change the slope of the playing field.
you cut off the the "more" to make it sound like my statement meant we are equal instead of relatively better than we once were in comparison to the upper class.
then proceeded to provide examples of your toddler being able to retain information and yourself retaining information. both are about memory and ability to recall those memories with accuracy.
Oh, in the first post, my examples are about "ability to gain information [learn]" but you were talking about "ability to gain information [access]". Okay, yes the internet and the public library system are truly wonderful. I do presume that the ruling class (and/or the rich) have some information that is not publicly available, and it's probably very important information, but yes, a poor man can walk into a library today and find treasure laying around. That has improved our footing. :)