Preprint of a new paper examining the material conditions that give rise to internationally recognized scientists just came out. The authors argue that if we were actually recognizing and nurturing scientific talent, we'd expect the family income distribution of Nobel laureates to be roughly normal (i.e. most Nobel winners would come from families with incomes around the 50th percentile). Their results very much do not bear this out: the average Nobel winner grew up in a household in the about the 90th percentile of income no matter where they grew up, with disproportionately large numbers coming from the 95th percentile and up. This strongly suggests that academic achievement, especially at the highest levels, is not a meritocracy, but rather limited by the material conditions of birth.
I know, but the size of the effect is really staggering.
I don't know enough about the internal workings of that state to verify this however: does a poor farmer in North Korea have equal access to education as one in the city, or the Kim family themselfs? I find this very hard to belive
Not the Kim family, as they tend to study abroad
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Nobody is suggesting that the dprk is a perfectly equal system. That is practically impossible to do and is not the goal of socialism. The dprk is not a perfectly equal system, just a somewhat more equal one.