

In the Basement of the Ivory Tower (2008) - acheron
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/06/in-the-basement-of-the-ivory-tower/306810/?single_page=true

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danielweber
_I teach young men who must amass a certain number of credits before they can
become police officers or state troopers, lower-echelon health-care workers
who need credits to qualify for raises, and municipal employees who require
college-level certification to advance at work._

Credentialism to the core.

 _Some of them come to me at the conclusion of a course and matter-of-factly
ask that I change a failing grade because they need to graduate this semester
or because they worked really hard in the class or because they need to pass
in order to receive tuition reimbursement from their employer._

This breaks my heart. Why are we doing this to people?

~~~
rayiner
It's a combination of classism and cargo culting. Instead of embracing the
lower middle class, and acknowledging that everyone performs a role and has
value in society, we embrace our contempt for them and their work but convince
ourselves that if they go through the same motions as Harvard or Yale grads
they'll be able to rise above their circumstances.

~~~
intopieces
Boy did you say it. The contempt for working people in this society is
palpable: "You don't want to end up flipping burgers, do you?" Morever, if you
choose to forgo that option and aim for a higher paying job, you get: "Why
don't you get a job? You too good to flip burgers?" The working class can't
win.

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stegosaurus
This really resonates with me for reasons I find difficult to articulate.

Meritocracy seems to be similar to democracy in that it's better than the
alternative (nepotism), but seemingly falls short of the mark.

A person who happens to be adept at mathematics, by whatever means (perhaps
they've been taught well, perhaps they have innate talent, perhaps they had
good nutrition as a child) will generally end up with a higher earning
potential, and so generally will end up with a more comfortable life. A better
life, for lack of more accurate terminology.

To me, that seems like a peculiar form of social darwinism. People do not
control these traits to a huge extent. I... rather, we at HN, are better than
some of our peers at mathematics, at algorithmic problem solving. No doubt
about it. You can probably find someone in your life that you'll always be
better than, in that particular field.

We will be richer than some people purely by virtue of history, by virtue of
events no longer within our individual control (if they ever were). Human
capital.

I struggle to reconcile that with wanting to reward people for the value they
add to society.

This is one of the reasons I've been swayed towards supporting universal basic
income. I just can't see that it's right for people to be thrown on the scrap
heap simply because they happened to be born with the wrong talents, the wrong
preferences, or simply an inferior toolset. It seems to me that it's just the
logical progression from helping those with a disability.

It might be a necessary evil for the talented to earn more. I don't believe
it's necessary for those less fortunate to struggle to meet basic requirements
like shelter.

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henrikschroder
It's very likely we'll see a post-labour society in our lifetimes, one where
automation has eliminated the vast majority of jobs, and our society has
hopefully transitioned into one where having a job is no longer necessary to
achieve happiness or decent living conditions.

And here is yet another policy that goes in the opposite direction, that will
make the transition worse, that drums into people that "College guarantees a
great career!", with the unspoken backside that if you can't make it through
college, you are a failure as a person.

I don't know what to do, how do we reverse all this damage?

I'm not sure replacing "college for everyone" with "or vocational school!" is
a solution either, we'll automate all those jobs away, too!

------
SagelyGuru
Perhaps a little too literary presentation for my liking but the basic thesis
is as sound as it is sad.

As someone who taught in those "lucky" science departments, I must say that
the experience was not that much different or better. Deficiencies in the
basic skills and oversupply of the sense of entitlement.

Those inabilities to write a coherent sentence or a research paper are just as
serious handicaps to computer scientists and professionals. Sometimes it
extends even to an inability to write a coherent line of code.

