Except all (positive) outcomes are opportunities in another context. It's a continuous process.
The most obvious place to see this is looking at parents' economic outcomes versus their kids' development opportunities, but it doesn't even have to be generational.
If you have a sack of money (outcome), you automatically have many more options (opportunity) for creating a larger stack of money. Imagine a fair and random gambling game: Insolvent players are removed from the game, so the player with the deepest pockets at the beginning has the best opportunity of winning everything.
Yes, and the big disconnect seems to be an inability to recognize that access to health care, education, child care, and even a poverty safety net are fantastic ways to give people opportunity. I really think the basic philosophical divides between conservative and liberal America is not as great as it seems- people are just really easily distracted by a media and political system that profits tremendously by making people hate and fear each other.
The most obvious place to see this is looking at parents' economic outcomes versus their kids' development opportunities, but it doesn't even have to be generational.
If you have a sack of money (outcome), you automatically have many more options (opportunity) for creating a larger stack of money. Imagine a fair and random gambling game: Insolvent players are removed from the game, so the player with the deepest pockets at the beginning has the best opportunity of winning everything.