The Lie of Meritocracy: Chris Hayes' Twilight of the Elites

How did American society get to this point of gross inequality? That's the question MSNBC host Chris Hayes tackles in this EPIPHANY episode discussing his most recent book, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy.
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[daryehl]

Meritocracy, in theory, is perfect, just and honest. But the structure of a capitalistic society creates so much economical and social inequalities that it ends up making the conditions of competition very unequal. It creates privilege for those who are powerful to maintain their privileged position and those who aim for a privileged position to have an unfair disadvantage. How can a democracy works if the conditions of competing are unequal? It is a structure to maintain the same conditions to the privileged.

[SissonGame]

Just watched Chris Hayes discussing meritocracy on Morning Joe. Refreshing and thought-provoking. Whether you agree with him or not, THINKING is a good thing.

[hornypervert]

Democracy is not a treasure. It just prevents a single madman from screwing up.

[buenos]

Meritocracy is not a lie, rather it is a lie that we have meritocracy right now. We should have real meritocracy. We have cronyism and a corrupt feudal suck-up-to-promotion system. Not only to leadership and management titles, but even to technical expertise titles. The execs appoint the most loyal person to be the local "expert" in science and engineering, not the most capable person.

[grazzly]

First, you eliminate private property for corporations. Corporations must lease yearly from private individuals. Second, no one can own more land than he or she's immediate family can work with their own hands. Public financing of elections ONLY. Cap executive salaries like they cap sports teams. Destroy monopolies and oligarchies. Kill anyone who resists.

[mraccident]

The word "Meritocracy" fits here like the word "ironic" in the song "Ironic" by Alanis Morissette.

[PasDeMD]

Exactly. I don't know why he's raging against "the meritocracy"--there isn't one.

[travcollier]

Meritocracy is a great ideal, but thinking that it is a reality leads to destructive (and dumb) things. It is something to strive for, but realize that we can never reach.
The various ways merit is supposedly recognized must always be viewed skeptically and improved (if we can). They misses many worthy individuals, and some people will always find ways to game the system and gain success without real merit.

[SirKickz]

I agree with everything that you said, I simply think that the solution is to admit freely that there is no meritocracy in America, and to set a true meritocracy as a goal.

Again, the only thing that bothers me about this video is that the guy seems to suggest that we shouldn't be striving for meritocracy, which I don't agree with at all.

[travcollier]

You bring up a really good point...
Meritocracy requires some mechanism which judges merit. With respect to politics, we have voting. In business there are profits. School has tests. ect. ect. None of these is close to a foolproof measurement of merit (or arguably a real measure of merit at all). Is the ability to get elected really a measure of how good a political leader will be? Are profits really a measure of how much someone contributes to society? Not in the real world.

[flystix]

The same goes for Wall Street and the housing bubble that burst. Our system is being allowed to be played like a casino without much oversight or people getting prosecuted for grossly unfair and unsafe practices. It's disgusting.

[athena]

What he is talking about and describing is not Meritocracy. Meritocracy is America? Where and when? He is full of it.

[cassinipanini]

We don't need to *be* a meritocracy for people to believe we are. Think about how powerful the 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' ideology is, that's meritocracy.

[cassinipanini]

There are numerous changes we could make, even in the short run: implement a liveable minimum wage, make healthy food available in all areas not just rich neighborhoods, ban predatory pricing of items in low-income areas, institute effective school reform by removing standardized testing and fostering creativity, cap tuition increases on public universities are a few institutional examples. Socially, focus more on actual equality instead of pseudo-equality that keeps the power elite comfortable.

[debbiehoad]

I think the intent and pursuit of egalitarianism can be more important than actually achieving it 100%, because there will also be people fighting against it and making it impossible to keep it.

[unvergebeneid]

Lemming A: "I guess we should stop, that cliff's awfully near."
Lemming B: "If some of us stopped now, we'd be trampled to death so there's really no alternative than to keep running."

My bottom line is that I can see your point, it's just not a very clever one. You don't need any alternatives to say that indefinite exponential growth will always, let me repeat that, ALWAYS lead to disaster.

[Carnage]

Capitalism may not be perfect, but it's the most compassionate system at the moment. and best for achieving freedom and prosperity. again, dispute the invisible hand

[aaronausweh]

But there never was Meritocracy in America. We blindly pretend like Capitalism is Meritocracy and THAT is what lead to the institutional failure, not Meritocracy itself. Then Capitalism turned into Corporatism.

Had there been actual Meritocracy backed up with things such as 100% inheritance tax, America would be a much different and progressive place.

[cassinipanini]

That would work in small-scale communities, I'd say no more than 5 or 7 thousand. The problem is that America is too big, and even states would be unable to function under direct democracy.

[debbiehoad]

I think it's because when we try to create a meritocracy, we must decide what merit is. That eventuates into the creation of elite institutions deemed to create merit. Once that happens, those institutions gain value and become harder to access, and that's when 'elite' starts to mean 'expensive' rather that' meritous'. Then they slip out of the reach of the poor and your society is no longer a meritocracy.