The truly rich don't have to cheat to buy their children's way into an elite university. They treat it as a birthright.

I think that the deepening poverty that the US imposes on the non-rich is a more important problem than the decrease of their always-tiny chance of becoming rich. However, it seems plausible that the two are results of the same cause: plutocracy.

It was democracy, and the policies it established, that made a good college education available to non-rich young adults. Now it's plutocracy that fuels all the decisions that make it unavailable.

I don't think people need to earn merit to deserve a bearable life. Everyone deserves that.