(12-06-2011, 10:28 PM)FireIceTalon Wrote: More like: You wish it was opinion. Self-evident conditions do not carry the burden of proof. You say there is equal opportunity, I say there isn't. Burden of proof is on YOU homie, not me. Fact, end of story.
You are not merely claiming there isn't perfect equality of opportunity. You are claiming something like the opposite, that success is almost entirely a function of your birth - and that is an extraordinary claim, requiring, as Sagan said, extraordinary evidence. Certainly it is not self-evident, and it is not a reasonable null hypothesis.
Indeed, if you look at the studies behind the website you link us to, you actually find that quite a lot of people move from the bottom quartile to the top quartile, and vice versa. Income at birth matters, but it hardly determines your future status in an entirely deterministic way. The coefficients of correlation show neither a trivial effect, nor a dominating one. These are aggregate statistics, not anecdotes.
But, then, you supposedly have me on ignore, so I guess this is for the peanut gallery.
-Jester