社会理论： 机会均等
In the pursuit of a meritocracy, pursuit of equal opportunity is essential. Equal opportunity is often considered separate from basic freedoms. For example, freedom of speech is usually not within the realm of equal opportunity but rather within basic rights.
Equal opportunity consists of additional elements crucial to a meritocracy, such as:
1. Consideration for employment, housing, and education free from immutable characteristics such as race, age, or disability;
2. Equal access to goods and services from the government.
实现机会均等是困难的
In practice, methods for fulfilling equal opportunity can be less than complete or ineffective. Indeed, the means by which to measure the success or failure of equal opportunity policies is unclear. Opportunity itself is often difficult—if not impossible—to accurately measure. Thus, in practice, equal opportunity is said to exist when people with similar abilities reach similar results (equality of outcome) after doing a similar amount of work. Indeed, equal opportunity and equality of outcome are often seen as complementary. Other societal traditions interfere with equality of opportunity, however; for example, as long as wealth, and thus opportunities, can be passed from one generation to another through inheritance, it is unclear how equality of outcome would come about for two children of similar ability, one born into the elite class and one born into the middle or lower class.