
Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth - robg
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/16/equal-opportunity-our-national-myth/?ref=opinion
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lutusp
A quote: "According to research from the Brookings Institution, only 58
percent of Americans born into the bottom fifth of income earners move out of
that category, and just 6 percent born into the bottom fifth move into the
top."

That outcome statistic doesn't support your claim -- that there is inequality
of opportunity. BTW I think it's true that opportunity equality doesn't exist
or is seriously undermined, but the above isn't meaningful evidence for or
against.

This is what's wrong with social science -- a single observation with no
meaningful controls is put forth as evidence for or against a claim.

Those who deny that equality of opportunity exists will use the above result
to support their view -- only 6% of the population moved from the bottom to
the top. That's deplorable, yes?

Those who support the idea that equality of opportunity exists will use the
same numbers in support of the opposite conclusion -- after all, a full 6% of
those at the bottom made it to the top. Excuse me? It's only meaningful if
100% of those at the bottom arrive at the top? But that undermines the meaning
of "bottom" and "top" and makes the entire exercise meaningless. Surely you
don't think everyone at the bottom must end up at the top, do you? That
confuses equality of opportunity with equality of outcome.

See the problem? The argument in the linked article is meaningless because it
can be used to argue for either side of the issue with equal justice.

