Related to the leveling-down objection but distinct from it is the suggestion that opportunities should be maximized, or maximined, rather than equalized. To illustrate the suggestion, consider a world in which formal equality of opportunity and Rawlsian fair equality of opportunity are perfectly fulfilled. In this situation, there will be a certain number of opportunities that are regulated by these equal opportunity principles that are available to those who have the least of these opportunities. For simplicity suppose these opportunities consist of places in attractive postsecondary colleges and universities and other schools (where the number of applicants for slots exceeds the number of available slots), employment opportunities consisting of starting places in public and private firms and promotions in these enterprises, bank loans available for investment purposes including self-employment and starting a business, and licenses provided by the state that are legally required for engaging in certain occupations. Issues will arise here as to how to individuate and count opportunities; just suppose we can limit our attention to situations in which judgments that more or fewer opportunities are available to groups are uncontroversialy unproblematic. Now consider the hypothesis that if equal opportunity regulations were reduced or eliminated, opportunities overall would increase, and in particular opportunities available to those who have the fewest opportunities available would increase.  We should not be impressed if the number of opportunities increases by multiplying the number of very bad opportunities available to people, so let it be stipulated that opportunities increase only if the lucrativeness of some options, the nonpay desirable characteristics of some options, the significant variety of equally good options, and the overall desirability of options rated best by every individual, all increase. The suggestion is that when this hypothesis holds, it would be morally inappropriate to insist on maintenance of equal opportunity. One might propose amending an equal opportunity principle to allow deviations from it when deviations increase the regulated opportunities available to those who have the least such opportunities. Rawls allows deviations from his fair equality of opportunity norm when this condition is met.