It&#x27;s pretty notorious that science fairs are a venue for &quot;achievement laundering&quot;,  particularly when you see how many winners are professor&#x27;s kids,  upper upper middle class or otherwise privileged.<p>The U.S. is starting to get as bad as Heian Japan -- where the obsession of aristocrats on maintaining their privilege meant making a mockery of the Confucian institutions they imported from China.