Since 1988, every US president has been a Harvard or Yale grad.

[fujiyama]

18. This is an interesting fact

and I think this elitism plays a part in the increasing economic (and political) inequality we're dealing with.

Certain professions are virtually closed off to those who don't go to an elite university (investment banking and high end law firms won't even look at applicants regardless of their GPA if haven't attended a particular Ivy League school). Now I understand people have various biases for fellow alum, but we're seeing a lot of people basically pulling in fellow "elites" and kicking the ladder after they get to the top. It creates a bizarre incestuous atmosphere (especially in power centers of DC and NYC). And since these schools' price tags are increasingly out of reach for most Americans this problem is simply reinforcing itself.

Granted, it can be debated how much value investment bankers and corporate lawyers bring to society in the first place (I'd say very, very little). But this is the crux of the problem - many of these graduates are indeed brilliant (of course there are exceptions - look at the previous president!) - but are doing very little to actually contribute to society. They're sucked into Wall Street or K street because the money is great and they work "hard" but they are basically parasites, producing no product and a service of questionable good (if not outright evil as in the case of CDOs).