We all know this story a bit too well, especially given what week it is. 

It’s 6 a.m. The unmistakable jarring sound of your iPhone marimba alarm interrupts that magical, coma-like state of sleep you were enjoying. 

This time, however, you can’t rationalize hitting the snooze button. It’s midterms week and you’ve got the biggest exam of the semester coming up in a few hours.

Hakuna Matata.

You prepared weeks in advance, now it’s purely a matter of reviewing the information for maximum retention. Through hard work and dedication, you have set yourself up for success.

Meanwhile, a fellow classmate takes a more palatable but dishonest approach. In fact, this student inherited last year’s version of the test, so he or she is essentially guaranteed a good grade.

Despite having put an inconsequential amount of effort into studying, that student makes a perfect score, while you land a respectable yet undesired “B.”

Put another way, brains and hard work were not necessarily the determinants of success. More importantly, though, you were denied equality of opportunity, an idea that is central to our republic.

Indeed, the United States likes to imagine itself as the quintessential embodiment of a meritocracy.

Unfortunately, an increasing amount of evidence gathered from economists and suggests socioeconomic mobility — the ability for individuals to increase or decrease their income/status group — has been significantly diminished in the U.S., with the most egregious disparities found to be among blacks and whites.

The wealth gap between blacks and whites practically tripled over the past 25 years, according to a new study by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University.

There are several conclusions that can be drawn from this evidence.

Certainly, many Americans still believe racial inequality is the result of “individual behavior, choices, character, marriage and child bearing,” says Dr. Thomas Shapiro, IASP director in the study.

The notion that the gap between both the rich and the non-rich largely reflects dissimilarities between individual effort and intuitive skill is a focal point of right wing thought.

This belief, however, poorly reflects reality and is merely conservative dogma.

To be sure, homeownership, income, college education, inheritance and unemployment are the biggest factors causing such substantial increases in the racial wealth gap, the study determined.

Most importantly, the study found “public policies play a major role in widening the already massive racial wealth gap, and they must play a role in closing it,” Shapiro said.

So how can we fix this?

American conservatives say the answer rests in promoting marriage. This is a fallacious inference, as the Brandeis study acknowledged that while marriage is a contributing factor, its impact is quite small.

Liberals, on the other hand, advocate income redistribution, taking from the rich and giving to the less well off. Likewise, this is a bad idea, because the government should not create disincentives on success.

The Brandeis report provides a more rational solution.

The report recommends that policymakers take action in strengthening and enforcing fair housing, mortgage and lending policies, raising the minimum wage and enforcing equal pay provisions, investing in high-quality childcare, early childhood development and education and overhauling preferential tax loopholes on dividends earnings.

Basically, America needs to refocus itself on creating policies that foster our beloved meritocratic ideals.

We need to ensure equality of opportunity, so that everyone — rich or poor, black or white — has a shot at the top. 

Social mobility is, in fact, the key to what has made America the most attractive nation in the world and has resulted in our becoming the most influential global power.

This makes sense.

Who would want to live in a country where everyone is not given equal opportunity to acquire immense success, given hard work and an entrepreneurial mindset?

America is in a conceptually similar situation to the student with the midterm dilemma: In the end, people want to be rewarded for their hard work.

If everyone isn’t on relatively equal playing field, we will ultimately end up in a motivation-less society.

Jay Meyers is a 20-year-old economics sophomore from Shreveport, LA