Yup, my fault, not clear enough. I'm talking about the US more than the UK, although now that UK universities have essentially been told by the government to behave like businesses, with poor people already less likely to apply than the rich since fees went from zero to almost ten grand a year in the course of a decade, I expect the UK to catch up soon enough in terms of buying your way into a good university (there is indeed already rumbling about places going to foreign students who can be charged far more than home students, establishing the principle, so I expect that as soon as universities work out a way to let people buy their way in, they will).
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Edit to answer this point below:
""Give up, no point working hard, you will never make anything of yourself, the game is rigged"?"
No. My alternative narrative is "know the game is rigged". If you're playing a rigged game, your chances are so much better if you realise this (hence my very first post here - the people who rig the game work hard to make the unlucky ones think it isn't rigged).
"Some people will have it much, much easier than you and some people will have it much, much harder. That is irrelevant to how well you do, so have at it."
So what would your alternative narrative be for people?
"Give up, no point working hard, you will never make anything of yourself, the game is rigged"?
Yes, the fees for UK universities are higher and this will discourage some people from going to university. But the fee levels are still restricted and do not vary much between universities, and access to student finance is available to everyone, so I don't think the new system will make much difference at all.
Thing is, one could say that "be aware that the game is rigged, try to understand it, play by your own rules, and adapt to the rigged game in order to survive". Thing is, that relies on so many factors that simply aren't the case for people - intelligence, upbringing, world-experience, contacts, race, gender, education. Basically, there's always a chance you can make it no matter how fucked you are, but that percentage is so low you may as well say fuck it and start selling drugs, because the chance of you making it legitimately is orders of magnitude lower than the chance you'll get caught "making it" illegally.
Yup, my fault, not clear enough. I'm talking about the US more than the UK, although now that UK universities have essentially been told by the government to behave like businesses, with poor people already less likely to apply than the rich since fees went from zero to almost ten grand a year in the course of a decade, I expect the UK to catch up soon enough in terms of buying your way into a good university (there is indeed already rumbling about places going to foreign students who can be charged far more than home students, establishing the principle, so I expect that as soon as universities work out a way to let people buy their way in, they will).
------------EDIT-------------
Edit to answer this point below: ""Give up, no point working hard, you will never make anything of yourself, the game is rigged"?"
No. My alternative narrative is "know the game is rigged". If you're playing a rigged game, your chances are so much better if you realise this (hence my very first post here - the people who rig the game work hard to make the unlucky ones think it isn't rigged).