As Michael Young recognized, however, this ideal was bound to conflict with a force in human life as inevitable and as compelling as the idea that some individuals are more deserving than others, namely, the desire of families to pass on advantages to their children. As he said in The Rise of the Meritocracy, “Nearly all parents are going to try to gain unfair advantages for their offspring.”45 And when you have inequalities of income, one thing people can do with extra money is to pursue that goal.
