The Rich Are Different

You wonder if having lots of money makes people lose all appreciation of its relative value:

Bribing toddlers can be counter-productive, according to Vanessa. Instead, the 28-year-old coaches her young charges how to play together---for $450 an hour. After all, play dates are no trivial matter. They can decide a child’s future.

Vanessa, who declines to give her last name, is one of a new breed of play date experts that help children prepare for admission to New York’s elite kindergartens. As part of the admission process to these schools that charge up to $40,000 a year, four-year-olds must attend a playgroup where they are tested by teachers for academic ability and their social and emotional IQ [...]

These New York children take a test at the age of four. The ERB---named after the Educational Records Bureau which administers it---determines if a child can get into the best private schools, such as Trinity which includes Lachlan Murdoch and Ivanka Trump among its alumni.

Say it again: $40,000 a year. For kindergarten. And if your name happens to be Murdoch or Trump, you can get your kid admitted, too. Welcome to the New American Meritocracy.

---Baron V