By my reading, nullBolt didn't mean anything even remotely close to that. In his original mention of "potential" as quoted by you in this post, he was speaking about very general things like intelligence and the ability to reach shelves.
How do you measure such "general" traits as "intelligence" and "ability to do [whatever]" in a person? By comparing their behaviour with generally accepted standards of behaving "intelligently" or being "competent" at whatever task. Sounds perfectly objective, right? Right?
No. Have you forgotten that we live in a capitalist reality? If you inherit a billion dollars from your poppa and invest them in Google stocks, you'll be richer than any "intelligent" person who has ever "earned" their way by relying solely on their own inherent "abilities." And if you have a billion dollars, people will think that you're "smart," "competent," and "able" even if you're utterly incompetent and rock-stupid. Case in point: it starts with a "T" and rhymes with "rump."
If you think that people have innate value besides their objective economic value, you are a bad capitalist, shame on you. If you are not a capitalist, why are we even having this argument?
I fail to see how these questions are a suitable response.
A: "I liek mudkipz."
B: "Isn't that unsanitary?"
A: "...no?"
B: "Does your threat ever get sore?"
A: "Dude, what are you talking about?"
B: "You said you like mud kips. Never heard of a kip made of mud, but eating anything made of mud seems like a terrible idea."
A: "No, 'mudkips.' It's a pokemon.
B now has a choice!B response 1: "Oh. Ok."
B response 2: "Well, how do you eat pokemon, then? They're not even real! Have you forgotten we live in the real world, not some video game? If you somehow had a bunch of pokemon and ate them, you'd be stuck with lightning and fire effects going off inside your stomach. Much worse off than people who very reasonable stick to eating regular food. Plus, eating your pokemon would make you a
bad pokemon trainer, shame on you. And if you don't eat your pokemon, why are we even having this argument? "
You chose option 2.