[thereisnospork]

If every kid has an equally advantaged upbringing then by definition a crack-whore[1] is as good a mother as anyone's. I'm no social-psychiatrist but I'd wager 'wanting to provide better for one's offspring' ranks just behind 'food' and 'sex' as primal motivators.

Please don't take this as an argument against taking steps to improve education and opportunity[2], only that anything approaching true flatness would represent a massive disruption of social order and motivation.

[1] Literal.

[2] I agree with most of your suggestions; educated persons are valuable.

[keenmaster]

Yep, I don't disagree with any of that. What I really meant was that we'd be much better off if every kid had at least the baseline quality of parenting in upper-middle-class suburbs. Competition for even better parenting would still exist at the margins, albeit with diminishing returns.