Opportunity in America
I’ve been engaged in conversations in many venues of late on the topic of opportunity. Specifically whether there is equality of opportunity in America, and whether there is somehow a fundamental difference in that opportunity today versus any yesterday. As the father of 3, employer of many, and mentor to countless more, it’s a topic of some significance and importance.
We should start by admitting that there is really no possibility that true equality has ever, or will ever exist (tip of the hat to my cousin Rick for his eloquence on this). There really isn’t a level playing field, nor has there ever been one. In order to have a realistic discussion about opportunity we must acknowledge that people have vastly different talents and capabilities, a fact that inherently creates inequality. Some folks are simply smarter or stronger or wiser than others. We should also agree that in order for a free society to prosper it is necessary that we acknowledge and reward different levels of achievement and effort differently.
Equality of opportunity is, or should be, about what you are able to do with your potential.
At this point there appear to me to be two variables that exist when we examine opportunity by starting from outcomes and then looking backward. It is impossible to escape the reality that education is the springboard to opportunity, and that the educational opportunities available prior to college are not equal across the board. If a child is not identified as having the potential to excel early in the school years it’s much more difficult to fully express potential when they are not placed in a setting where they will be challenged intellectually. Every public school system has a place for advanced learning; the key is for those with potential to have access.
From here it’s all about effort. Desire, determination, and perseverance. No one reaches the fullest expression of their potential without these three key ingredients. This is why it’s a fool’s errand to evaluate opportunity by looking backwards from any given endpoint. With a particular quiver of similar “tools” it is impossible to comment on opportunity from a societal standpoint because you simply cannot measure the individual expression of these three variables, desire, determination, and perseverance.
Right about now someone is just itching to talk about the unfairness of wealth when it comes to opportunity. This argument presumes that wealth inherently, in and of itself, provides greater opportunity. I don’t think this is true. A life with everything one needs or wants provided to you is not really an example of seeking, finding, and taking advantage of an opportunity to succeed. What wealth provides, and those born into families of greater means benefit from, is the assumption that one will succeed. Indeed, it’s almost a demand that the next generation will succeed. Once upon a time those not of wealth were truly and harmfully excluded from places that would open opportunities. Now those same institutions are not only open to those of fewer means, they actively look for and support those who seek them out. The “better” the school the less significant money becomes as a barrier to entry, a barrier to opportunity.
What remains as a real barrier is a lack of imagination and a lack of belief when it comes to opportunity. I found myself sitting on a plane next to a young man from a family of very limited means living in a town with a very low mean income. A rising high school junior, he had tested into a STEM magnet school where he was getting all A’s. He was earning pocket money by programming mobile Apps for a cousin’s business. I asked him about the next step, about college, and his answer illustrates the last frontier in equality of opportunity. You see, he has already demonstrated determination and desire, and he shows no signs of slacking or giving up, but the highest aspiration he perceives is to go to the local state college. No one before me had ever given him any indication that there was more. That he was capable of more. More often than not it seems that kids from similar backgrounds are told just the opposite, that they cannot rise. That’s a big problem, but as my cousin noted that’s also a topic worthy of a separate discussion.
The last barrier to equal opportunity for all Americans is one of awareness and imagination. Parents, teachers, and other older mentors should collectively advance the notion that their young ones can rise. Once aware, any individual’s outcome is then determined by his or her desire, determination, and perseverance, and limited only by their own imagination.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.