"Laws where the only people who think they're good laws are the people who benefit from them, and there aren't many of those, are not good laws."

"I don't think it's hurting anybody. They're mostly not zero-sum privileges."

"I mean, the government only has so much money, right, if they're giving things to some people they're not doing whatever else they'd do with the money. And - you didn't draw thirty-five out of a hat, right, you thought it was the right amount to reimburse to balance 'discourage being stupid' and 'your life isn't ruined', so presumably there is a cost to having it be a different number -"

"The argument would be that the number which balances 'don't be stupid' and 'your life isn't ruined' is different for blues because they don't have other sources of income."

"Are there things where, like, purple and grey get the most money back because it's more reasonable to expect people not to take risks if they have an education in accounting and know what's too good to be true?"

"There are not."

Mildly judgmental wizard.

"Even purples and greys learn that get rich quick schemes aren't a good plan," says Nanha.

"Sure, I just think that if it's a good idea to have different laws for different groups of people and the way that shakes out is always in favor of being nicer to powerful people then you're probably compromising on good laws to be nice to powerful people."

"Probably. Some countries have populist parties that push for things like that, hasn't really taken off here."

"I bet that's because winning every single purple and grey and orange voter gets you, what, thirty percent of the vote."

"Is your society even democratic?"

"It is not! Pureblood families don't arrange themselves nearly as many legal privileges, though, because there aren't that many laws to privilege yourself with."

"Pureblood?"

"No Muggle ancestry."

"That's important?"

"Very important."

"Does it make you better at magic?" wonders Sinkali.

"Yes but not dramatically and pureblood families are richer and can afford better tutors and materials and the teachers are probably more lenient with you so it's hard to tell if there's anything really there at all. It's also just self-perpetuating - I wouldn't marry someone who wasn't a pureblood because then our kids would have a harder time marrying..."

Nod.

"Is this entirely assortative?" asks Nanha.

" - sorry?"

"Do purebloods marry purebloods, and people with specific amounts of impurity marry people with matching amounts, unless someone cares to generate scandal, or is it fuzzy, or is a few generations of equally impure people as good as someone whose ancestors had a head start..."

"More or less? Purebloods marry purebloods, if you're halfblooded and marry a Muggleborn that's only a little surprising, or if you're a girl who is left by one fiancé then you probably have to marry down a bit when you try again, and after enough generations people don't care too much - like, Michael and Rebecca's kids won't be able to marry into a good family and probably not their grandkids though they could maybe finesse it with enough money and politicking, and their greatgrandkids shouldn't be damaged by it much."

"Are the things that make a family good about the same things that define it among blues or is it some totally other thing?"