How is anything you just wrote a counterargument to the idea that higher education is about signaling more than about learning?
Signaling that you came from a wealthy family is still signaling. And household income itself may very well be correlated with economically valuable skills developed through childhood that would benefit from signaling in higher ed—that wouldn't make income inequality morally just, but it would make it a positive feedback loop, which is pretty much what we observe.
If anything the idea that higher ed is more about signaling than learning is supported by the idea that the benchmarks we use are correlated more strongly with pre-higher-ed socioeconomic background than with the school you go to. If higher ed were effective at teaching the skills in question we'd see more of a leveling effect than we do.
Perhaps there are different groups of wealthy people with different views on these things?
In my experience wealthy families where the parents are doctors, university professors, and in technology tend to want to transmit a genuine love of learning to their children, as they feel learning and education has done well for them.
On the other hand - my friends are merely millionaires, preparing their children to work for a living. Perhaps there are higher levels of wealth where your kids will never need to work, and the ultimate flex is your kid taking a degree in art history and dropping out half way through because daddy won't mind.
Signaling that you came from a wealthy family is still signaling. And household income itself may very well be correlated with economically valuable skills developed through childhood that would benefit from signaling in higher ed—that wouldn't make income inequality morally just, but it would make it a positive feedback loop, which is pretty much what we observe.
If anything the idea that higher ed is more about signaling than learning is supported by the idea that the benchmarks we use are correlated more strongly with pre-higher-ed socioeconomic background than with the school you go to. If higher ed were effective at teaching the skills in question we'd see more of a leveling effect than we do.