[grey_whiskers]

You are incorrect.
Things happen every day that people do not want, that they may even have foreseen and tried to avoid, but happened anyway.
As well as being subject to other’s choices;
or even accidents of birth and discrimination (read up on the college admissions scandal, and on the lawsuit by some of Asian descent against Harvard).
Or those who suffered so (say) Kamala Harris or Elizabeth Warren could get ahead.

[econjack]

I'm not saying that discrimination and other factors don't exist. However, I've also sat in on college admissions committees and reviewed "marginal" student applications and seen time-and-time again where a non-minority with better qualifications was denied so a minority with lesser qualifications could get in. Reverse discrimination also exists.

My first semester teaching at a college powerhouse in basketball, two players from the team came in and asked for their copy of the final. I told them the final wasn't for two more weeks. They said they knew that but, because they were on the BB team, they got copies of finals two weeks before it was given. I said not in my class you don't. I never had another student athlete in any of my classes. So, who's in the wrong here? Me, or the coaches/teachers who went along with it?