 Although the United States is one of the wealthiest nations in the world, we have some of the highest levels of wealth inequality. We're sold the idea that no matter what class of wealth you're born into, you can work hard and succeed. But numerous studies have shown that this is far from the case in our country. While you'd think the biggest indicator of future wealth was based on work ethic, it's actually based on how much money you're born into. Knowing all this, when the Varsity Blues admission scandal broke, I was far from surprised. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, a man by the name of Rick Singer was paid hefty amounts of money to forge academic credentials of rich kids to get them into good schools. One of those children was YouTuber Olivia Jade, who is the daughter of full house star Lori Loughlin and fashion tycoon Masimo Giannulli. Actually, I was pretty surprised. I wasn't surprised that this happened, but I was surprised that this was news. If you're part of the 99% like myself, you've known for a long time that wealthy children are much more likely to get into good schools. So, why was this college admission scandal so publicized? Recently, I discussed how I don't know how I'm supposed to lie to my son about the college admission process. But today, I saw something that really frustrated me. As part of her redemption tour, Olivia Jade went on red table talk to speak to Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield, and Willow Smith. Today, we're going to discuss how this was one of the most tone deaf ways for Olivia Jade to come back and show remorse. Will Smith is worth about $350 million, and Jada is worth an estimated $50 million. Who on earth thought it was a good idea for one of the richest families in America to shame a privileged girl who bought her way into college? As the common folk, we're completely blinded to the fact that things like this happen right in front of our eyes, and it's beyond disrespectful. Not only are there tens of thousands of kids around the country incapable of paying for college, but millions of families don't know how they're going to pay for rent or put food on the table. To fully understand why this interview is such a problem, we need to get a little philosophical and really deconstruct the primary question. Why was what Olivia Jade's family did so wrong? Not only do we need to break this question down, but I need you to keep this in mind as we continue this discussion. The primary reason this is so wrong is because this is a prime example of privilege from the wealthy. Rather than getting into a good school on the basis of merit, the family was able to pay to get Olivia Jade into a good school. Then there's the fact that they lied about her athletic abilities to pad her college application. This is wrong because someone with lesser athletic ability should not get a reserved spot in a college meant for athletes who have worked hard. Well, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but these things happen all the time and you don't need to pay Rick Singer to lie on your application to make it happen. For the most thorough understanding of how the wealthy and privileged weasel their way into college, I highly, highly recommend you read the book The Price of Admission by Daniel Golden. In his book, he discusses how kids get into prestigious colleges based on big money donations from their parents, their parents being alumni, and their parents being famous. Harvard, Yale, Duke, Notre Dame, and just about any other prestigious college you can think of can easily be bought. Despite his mediocre SAT scores, Jared Kushner was accepted into Harvard after his parents donated millions of dollars. While that's one of the more high-profile cases, throughout Golden's book, there are dozens of examples like this. Golden discusses how many colleges expect donations between five or six figures just to get in. Nobody in their right mind would disagree that what Olivia Jade's family did was wrong, but we need to acknowledge that families donating ungodly amounts of money to colleges is completely legal. While Willow Smith and Jaden Smith didn't go to college, it's extremely tone-deaf for this family to lecture Olivia Jade. Had Willow or Jaden wanted to attend a good college, they could take their pick. Even if the Smiths didn't donate hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to the colleges, being the children of Will and Jada is an extreme advantage. To put this into perspective, ask yourself if you think anyone would know of Willow or Jaden Smith if it weren't for their parents. Would Jaden Smith have been in multiple movies and have a music career if it wasn't for who his parents are and what connections they have? Would Willow Smith's song about whipping her hair back and forth been a hit single or would it have fallen into obscurity? Again, we're asking ourselves why it was morally wrong for Olivia Jade's family to buy her into college, but how much different is this than the privilege the Smith kids have? College is an experience for you to receive an education which transforms into the career you want to pursue, but Olivia Jade's family use their money to pay for this. Meanwhile, the Smith kids have had the privilege of being linked up with top people in the music and film industry to further their careers. Now, there are those of you who are experiencing cognitive dissonance and want to believe the Smith family was the right family to shame Olivia Jade, despite the fact that the Smiths could give you 0.001% of their net worth and change your life forever. But even though they're far more well off than anyone watching this video, people might be saying, but they lied about Olivia Jade's athletic capabilities. Well, this isn't new either. In the price of admission, there is an entire chapter about how unathletic rich kids are given spots on the team due to donations from their family. And this doesn't even account for the fact that many of the sports scholarships would never apply to underprivileged teens. I want you to imagine a young girl growing up in poverty and then ask yourself if she'd ever have the chance of getting a scholarship for something like fencing. What about a black kid growing up in the hood? Do you think his school has a crew team for him to practice rowing? Of course not. So again, if we go back to why what Olivia Jade's family and all those other families did was wrong, we need to realize that it's happening all the time in completely legal ways. The entire college system is set up to help the wealthy and the privileged. And the last people who should be shaming Olivia Jade is a family of millionaires. If Olivia Jade really wanted to show remorse, she could have done this in a much better way by talking with smaller YouTubers and going on lesser known shows. This story was so huge that it was going to get attention no matter what. So the least she could do is talk to people that may have been affected by her actions. As someone who built a platform on YouTube, she could have collaborated with black and underprivileged creators to maybe give them a shot at getting noticed. Instead, Olivia Jade is going to do her rounds on platforms with fellow millionaires and frankly it's insulting. We need to stop normalizing millionaires talking about the problems the rest of us are facing like they can relate. We hold these people up on a pedestal for speaking out for us when they're doing little to nothing to help change the system. If the Smith family really cares about this issue, they should go campaign for college debt relief and making college free or at least affordable for everyone. They should educate themselves about the rigged college system and try to figure out ways to give underprivileged hard-working kids a fair shot. Thank you for tuning in to this quick little video essay but yeah, I was actually watching Philip DeFranco today when I saw the story and I'm sitting there and I'm just losing it like to me there is nothing worse. There is nothing worse than rich people who are taking advantage of the system talking about problems that the rest of us are facing but I think what really bothers me too is realizing how many of us don't even recognize it's happening right? This multi-millionaire family, this like the Smith kids never have to worry about anything. Their children will never have to worry about anything. Their great-grandchildren are probably gonna be fine if this system stays the way it is. So they are the last people who should be lecturing Olivia and Jade because they have all these same advantages. You know what I mean? But anyways, it's extremely frustrating. We need to start thinking about this stuff and you know, for all of you who are teenagers and trying to get to college and things like that, like I highly recommend you read that book, The Price of Admission. There's a whole list of books. There's a list of books that I've been putting together where I want my son to read them and I don't want him to read them like, oh, you know, hard work isn't gonna get me anywhere. No, that's not the case. Here's why I think it's so important for us to realize this is like I cannot imagine. I can't imagine because my son is a great student. He's only 11, all right? But he's a good student. But I can't imagine him just working his butt off. Him working his butt off throughout school and then not getting into a good college, even though his grades and his SAT scores and all that, and like, you know, he's doing sports and doing like volunteering, just doing everything you're supposed to do and then not getting in and thinking it was his fault. Like that would break my heart and it would break my heart for you all too if that happened to you or your kids or your family members or your friends or whoever it is. We need to understand that the system is messed up. So once we realize that, we can start to work on some solutions. Anyways, anyways, that's all I got for this video. Let me know your thoughts on this subject down below. Or if you have any experience with not being able to afford college or not being able to get in despite, you know, good grades or, you know, being amazing at sports or whatever it is, let me know down in the comments, alright? Anyways, that's all I got for this video. 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