
Michael Young, the Red Baron - magda_wang
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/11/michael-young-red-baron/
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magda_wang
This is an article about the economist who coined 'meritocracy'. Not a
fighting ace.

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EliRivers
Worth mentioning, I think, that he absolutely did not consider a meritocracy
to be a good thing; contrast with today, where it is casually assumed to be
so.

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gowld
It's become one of those terrible words where people get into debates each
using different definitions of the word without being aware of the difference.

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mcguire
That's the weird part: “I.Q. + effort = merit” sounds pretty positive, right?

But,

" _A system of class filtered by meritocracy would, in his view, still be a
system of class: it would involve a hierarchy of social respect, granting
dignity to those at the top, but denying respect and self-respect to those who
did not inherit the talents and the capacity for effort that, combined with
proper education, would give them access to the most highly remunerated
occupations._ "

The _intended_ result doesn't sound very appealing.

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mcguire
" _Young’s vision was decidedly dystopian. As wealth increasingly reflects the
innate distribution of natural talent, and the wealthy increasingly marry one
another, society sorts into two main classes, in which everyone accepts that
they have more or less what they deserve. He imagined a country in which “the
eminent know that success is a just reward for their own capacity, their own
efforts,” and in which the lower orders know that they have failed every
chance they were given. “They are tested again and again…. If they have been
labeled ‘dunce’ repeatedly they cannot any longer pretend; their image of
themselves is more nearly a true, unflattering reflection.”_ "

That sounds familiar.

" _But one immediate difficulty was that, as Young’s narrator concedes,
“nearly all parents are going to try to gain unfair advantages for their
offspring.” And when you have inequalities of income, one thing people can do
with extra money is to pursue that goal. If the financial status of your
parents helped determine your economic rewards, you would no longer be living
by the formula that “I.Q. + effort = merit.”_ "

And so does that.

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delibes
If you're not British, you might not get that 'red' here is associated with
the Labour party who are left wing. Blue is the colour associated with our
Conservative party (right).

Right now, with Brexit and leadership fights and other stuff, the main parties
are all over the place though.

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munk-a
Interesting, in America both the red and blue parties are right wing, one is
just much more extreme.

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brennebeck
In what sense do you mean “blue” (i.e Dem) to be right-wing in America?

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alexgmcm
I guess he means relative to left-wing parties in Europe etc.

