"Not wanting each child to get the best possible start in life makes absolutely no sense to me."
Maybe to lower the chances of other children against your own (wealthy) offspring? So from a very selfish individualistic perspective there is sense? I suspect that might be the base motivation, even though you likely won't find many openly stating that or even are aware of it.
It could do but only for the kids that would be competing closely with your own children, so of a similar socioeconomic status.
For children from much poorer backgrounds it's more likely that making their prospects even worse will just create later negative impacts on society, such as crime, drug addiction, prostitution, gang violence and so on.
Maybe to lower the chances of other children against your own (wealthy) offspring? So from a very selfish individualistic perspective there is sense? I suspect that might be the base motivation, even though you likely won't find many openly stating that or even are aware of it.