Foundation 3

Advantage Laundering

The concept describes a proposed mechanism by which morally arbitrary starting advantages can pass through legitimate market processes and emerge looking like wholly individual achievement.

Definition

Advantage laundering is not a claim that market exchange is itself illicit. The analogy concerns loss of causal history: an inherited or structural advantage can contribute to later productivity, while the resulting market reward records the current value of that productivity rather than its full provenance.

Illustrative channels

• intergenerational wealth and access to developmental resources;
• network position that changes access to jobs, mentorship, or capital;
• geographic and institutional conditions that affect opportunity.

What the concept does not say

It does not say all success is undeserved or that every advantage should be removed. The framework explicitly distinguishes genuine effort, innovation, and investment in one’s capacities from inputs treated as morally arbitrary.

Proposed response

MPS proposes provenance auditing and advantage indexing as analytical mechanisms, followed by corrections aimed primarily at the production of advantage rather than simple equalization of outcomes.