10 years ago they beat MIT. Today, it's complicated That's tomorrow, 1pm EST. http://www.underwaterdreamsfilm.com/
I watched the film. It was great, until the end. How utterly depressing. Here these high school kids were that beat MIT engineering students in a robotics contest. 10 years later the film maker got the kids together, the high schoolers and the MIT students now graduates. When asked what everyone was doing, the MIT students all had impressive jobs. The Hispanic kids had blue collar jobs, not necessarily a steady job, except one who said he was trying (or planning?) to open a restaurant. It's not about your abilities or your desire to work hard, it's mostly about the life you were born into. Kind of blows Ayn Rand's fantasy out of the water. The film was an emotional eye opener. Well worth watching if you get the chance.
How dare you blaspheme against Ayn Rand? Those disenfranchised Hispanics simply didn't give themselves fully toward their dreams. It takes more than a desire, but a sort of personal suicide to allow oneself to zealously follow at great cost and risk toward one's desire. At least that's what I got from her books, interviews, and biographies >.> Anyhoo, yeah, the environment can really impact opportunities for anyone. Why do you think first world countries, like America, have so many artists? The environment allows them to pursue their dreams by having such an ease-of-life (As in, all other necessary jobs are filled which allows opportunities for less necessary functions to exist due to demand and available space) rather than having a need to simply work and earn money or else it's the open sky for them.
Ayn Rand's philosophy that relates to this situation is that we (aka society) waste resources by funding education for low income kids. Funding for education should come from the individuals themselves (or their families) because the market will then sort out the successes from the failures. It's what you are saying is Rand's view as well, claiming it's all about the individual and not about the circumstances the individual finds oneself in.
Ayn Rand was a strange little hypocrite of a woman. She believed so much in a person's potential that she had this whole individual vs. world mentality. People make a lot of decisions that go against their own wants and needs, just to survive or get a comfortable enough life. There's no way to get everything we want or for everyone to get it. Sometimes, the world deals you a bad hand and you gotta smile through it as best as you can as it can give you limitations on your freedom.
