Rewarding unequal effort only works if starting conditions are equalized

Evidence

From the standpoint of the individualist, it may be just to treat men unequally so far as their efforts are unequal. It may be desirable to give as much incentive as possible to the full development of everyone’s powers. But what would happen if men were treated as unequally as they are unequal in the first two respects? It is obvious that those individuals also in whose favour there is birth, education, family name, business connections, and inherited wealth, would be selected in the race. But selection under such circumstances would not be a selection of the able. It would be the selection of the privileged. The reason, therefore, which forces that in the third respect we should treat men unequally, demands that in the first two respects we should treat men as equally as possible. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 908

Categorization

• XREF: This is a meritocracy critique very close to the modern ‘equality of opportunity requires equality of starting conditions’ argument found in Rawls and contemporary economic mobility literature.