Well you're right -- the article is all about hard work and ability /to succeed in undergraduate and graduate admissions contests/ -- I would argue that the social connections are for many the end goal, which you receive after proving you're worthy (and end up at an Ivy, for example) and it is these that actually catapult you into the elite, so hard work is a means to an end.

But this is tangential -- for me the concern is that in the article the writer skims over what kind of hard work and ability is really needed to run this gauntlet of constant judgement and admission from ages 4-25. It is not technical skills or intelligence or even hard work necessarily, but rather an ability and willingness to transform oneself into the kind of person that wins admissions contest. Success doesn't track ability, we've designed a system where we take success as a sign of ability but it actually measures a willingness and ability to conform to admissions standards and do as instructed, and we use this willingness and ability to change oneself as a proxy for actual ability. My argument is that this proxy isn't necessarily a very accurate one.

And I'm glad we agree on the definition of profit. I of course know the economist's definition and agree with it, I just gave what I consider to be a more revealing and honest characterization of it.