Let's do this. I want to become a noted computer scientist. I could do a Google search on a free computer at my local library. Here's the first hit (although not on a free library computer):
The 30 Most Influential Computer Scientists Alive TodayComputer Science Degree Hub
30 of the most brilliant men and women in the industry. What did they do to get there? I'd research their backgrounds, to which I might find they learned computer code, tinkered with computers in their dorm rooms in college, one even made a computer out of old TVs.
So the person who was born with all the advantages already did all of this long before ever going to college because they had all of these things at home. The impoverished person only has the public library computer to find out about it and so never got to do any tinkering. The advantaged person already is a few years ahead along with some actual practical experience.
How is this the SAME opportunity?
So what in the world is the advantage of having all the "free and unlimited usage of an up-to-date computer lab with super computers loaded with all the necessary software in a research university"? These "noted computer scientists" were the ones making the code that your super computers are loaded with in your research universities.
And this advantaged person is already on the path of making new code for the next wave of super-computing while disadvantaged person is still googling information in the public library, still unable to do anything practical.
How is this the SAME opportunity?
Also on the first page of my Google search are at least 6 links to lecture notes on Computer Science. Wait! What? I'm not even enrolled in a class and I can see lecture notes from a Stanford University "Foundations of Computer Science" class?! Tell me more! Ok, here's more - there are not 1, but 2 lecture note links to computer science classes at MIT.
So advantaged person is already able to talk to his or her computer scientist peers at the university where mom works while disadvantaged person is still years behind only starting to read some of the lecture notes. Advantaged person is already spending hours in the lab putting the research in those notes into actual practice.
How is this the SAME opportunity?
So, please. Don't tell me the opportunity isn't there and that being in some supercomputer lab because you mom works there gives one a distinct advantage. Your position fails on 2 important points:
1. To be a "noted computer scientist" (like those in the link above), one must learn the language. Which means one must get educated, which means going to school, which I can find one online (at the library) and the requirements to get in. Which means once accepted, one also gets to use the super duper computer lab that the other guy's mother works in. Same opportunity, different path. No advantage there.
Advantaged person has had access to all of these things at the university for free before even leaving elementary school. Doesn't have to wait to get accepted or even has to ever be accepted so long as mom still works there. Disadvantaged person is spending time filling out applications in hopes of getting accepted before ever having a hope of setting foot into the lab that advantaged person has been accessing for years. Advantaged person is already a noted computer scientist even before thinking of going to college and may, like Bill Gates, not even need to bother with it. Disadvantaged person is sitting in Freshman English class while advantaged person is preparing a presentation for Intel.
And all of this is assuming that this impoverished person has a lot more self-motivation and drive and intellect and the time to spend studying and going to school than many in the same life situation, and that the public library didn't drastically cut hours or get shut down due to lack of funding, or can focus due to lack of food that day, or has to spend most of the day babysitting four younger siblings because the single parent mother needs to work an extra shift at her third minimum-wage job, which is how many disadvantaged people have to live.
How is this the SAME opportunity?
2. Most importantly, one has to have a certain aptitude for it. The person with the mom who works in the computer lab may not have the same aptitude for computer science as the person doing research at the library. Aptitude depends on the individual. Just because one wants to be a "noted computer scientist" doesn't mean they will become one, regardless of whatever perceived advantages they may have.
That's true, but is the advantaged person does wish to go that route and has the aptitude for it, then they are going to have a MUCH easier and less expensive experience than the disadvantaged person with the same desire and aptitude. It is by no means the same or equal opportunity for both due to drastically different circumstances.
And this is just one single example out of many. We simply do not have the same or equal opportunity in this country and there is no sense in trying to pretend that we do.
