[ahomescu1]

> A huge amount of it simply comes from having parents that make you do homework, etc.

That's not something exclusive to rich people. I got a lot of encouragement as a kid from my parents to learn stuff and read books, without them being rich (grew up in Romania). Money isn't the big factor in your argument, quality parenting is (which I agree is important).

[zanny]

I'd say hes giving a lesser example. Private tutors, the ability to acquire any scientific equipment you want, not having to worry about what your next meal is, not having to get a job at 14 to make ends meet in the family hurting your studies, private schools that do career tracks from 8 with career tracks per student rather than factory public school education, and like I said, more importantly than anything, the connections you get by being in the rich kids club from birth.

You get a stacked hand economically, culturally, and socially. We often focus on the economic part, but I think it is the other two that contribute way more to the status quo being limited upward movement from poorer classes to the wealthy / elite / prosperous.

[ahomescu1]

Still sticking to STEM, here are my thoughts on each of your points:

> Private tutors

Not sure about these, don't know much about them.

> the ability to acquire any scientific equipment you want

If you're studying math/CS, how much of these do you need? Maybe for Physics or Chemistry, but even then?... When I was a kid, my parents bought me a cheapo Electronics kit and I learned a lot about circuits from that and a couple of books.

> not having to worry about what your next meal is, not having to get a job at 14 to make ends meet in the family hurting your studies

I don't know that many Romanian kids with that problem, so I expect it's even less common in the western world (disclaimer: I currently live in the US). However, I do see a lot of kids skipping school, acting cool and picking on nerds (and this is a global problem IMHO, not limited to the US or Eastern Europe). That's not poverty, that's just bad attitude.

> private schools that do career tracks from 8 with career tracks per student rather than factory public school education

Not sure about these either, never had contact with private schools.

> more importantly than anything, the connections you get by being in the rich kids club from birth

I think these matter a lot more in the legal and financial worlds. In tech, with all the startup money being thrown around, it's not that hard to get funding for an idea.

> You get a stacked hand economically, culturally, and socially. We often focus on the economic part, but I think it is the other two that contribute way more to the status quo being limited upward movement from poorer classes to the wealthy / elite / prosperous.

I personally know a few people from poor families who became tech millionaires in a decade or less, by starting their own company or working pre-IPO at a startup. While these are only anecdotes, they show it's not impossible to become rich. You do have to pick a high-growth field.

I think there's still a lot of mobility in fields where personal contribution and talent still matter, like technology, science and art (for example, you can still be poor and later become a millionaire, see Justin Bieber and Psy for recent examples). It's much harder to do this in finance, law and politics; but then again, hasn't it always been so?