> "Become a famous pop star or sports hero." - as improbable as ever.

It's even more improbable. For both of those, your starting to see more and more of the current generation that are children/nieces/nephews of the already famous. They have the financial comfort to pursue it, and the family connections in the industries.

And for sports, the level at which you have to be competitive is getting younger and younger. So much more sports science/nutrition going in at the middle school/high school level.

Those were two fields that seemingly were still meritocratic, but that is fading fast, if it ever existed at all.