determined by the circumstances under which a child grows up. One child attends a well-run grade school and

high school and heads on to college, while parents help out by supporting education and other interests,

paying for college, a first car, and a first house, and offering work connections that lead to internships and jobs.

Another child attends a poorly run grade school, barely makes it through a low-quality high school, does not go

to college, and lacks family and peer support. These two children may be similar in their underlying talents

and in the effort they put forth, but their economic outcomes are likely to be quite different.

Public policy can attempt to build a ladder of opportunities so that, even though all children will never come

from identical families and attend identical schools, each child has a reasonable opportunity to attain an

economic niche in society based on their interests, desires, talents, and efforts. Table 15.8 shows some of those
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