Posted on 06/01/2021 7:40:37 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life—money, power, jobs, university admission—should be distributed according to skill and effort. The most common metaphor is the ‘even playing field’ upon which players can rise to the position that fits their merit. Conceptually and morally, meritocracy is presented as the opposite of systems such as hereditary aristocracy, in which one’s social position is determined by the lottery of birth. Under meritocracy, wealth and advantage are merit’s rightful compensation, not the fortuitous windfall of external events.
Most people don’t just think the world should be run meritocratically, they think it is meritocratic. In the UK, 84 per cent of respondents to the 2009 British Social Attitudes survey stated that hard work is either ‘essential’ or ‘very important’ when it comes to getting ahead, and in 2016 the Brookings Institute found that 69 per cent of Americans believe that people are rewarded for intelligence and skill. Respondents in both countries believe that external factors, such as luck and coming from a wealthy family, are much less important. While these ideas are most pronounced in these two countries, they are popular across the globe.
Although widely held, the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure in the world is demonstrably false. This is not least because merit itself is, in large part, the result of luck. Talent and the capacity for determined effort, sometimes called ‘grit’, depend a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing.
In some ways, a person born in The U.S. to a poor family is much more “lucky” than someone born in another country to a wealthy family.
Our poor people have more "stuff" and more living space than the middle class of Europe (on average and in general.) Yet the elites in our country train our poor to believe they're victims.
And they are, to a degree -- victims of the very elites who oppress them by pretending to care for them.
Gratitude itself increases generosity — and opens the space to receive more.
Post of the day!
Heinlein nails it.
The first generation accumulates.
The second generation consolidates.
The third generation dissipates.
The assumption is that it is one or the other, luck or merit.
Wrong.
Usually it takes a bit of both.
PARC XEROX didn’t understand the value of the GUI. They wrote it off as a novelty.
Golly, Wow, white people are just so darn lucky snot fair to the rest.
Princeton should lower their tuition too, to make it fair for all.
In fact they should not charge anything because, in actuality they’re not worth anything.
Yes that was what I was later told !
China has a history of rewarding merit that goes back thousands of years.
Lies
All lies
Indeed, and midgets should be able to play in the NBA. No, meritocracy is not perfect since there are different levels of grace (DNA, environment, accidents, etc.) that factor in, but it is the best system considering the alternatives - and the author offers none that I saw, but liberals want to be the one;s who determine who gets what), esp. when it is understood that those who were given more grace should voluntarily help those who try but are truly disadvantaged.
Here’s another old saying...
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. :-)
Best concept so far. (Force them to live up to their own standards.)
This one is another “classic” out of Princeton in the last few days... what a disaster —
— you’d have thought that Woodrow Wilson was the worst it’d ever have come up with, but no, here we go from Princeton that the “Classics” exclude Latin and Greek and now that talent is racist.
What a sweet pudding is that little orange and black tiger.
Thanks!
It won’t. We’re already in free fall.
One of Alinsky's rules.
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