Is the United States a Meritocracy?

[Estro Felino]

Well..
I guess this is just a TV show...but Paris had really worked hard to get to Harvard...

 

[Revoltingest]

You can work hard, even taking on extra shifts or a second job, and still find yourself spinning your wheels or even sliding into debt (don't get hurt or sick!). It's a lot more about starting out with connections and affluence rather than honest effort from the ground up.

OTH, working hard can earn one great wealth.
When given a choice of working hard vs slacking off,
the former usually yields greater benefits. That's
how meritocracies work....no guarantees that life
will be fair...just a likely path to embiggenment.

 

[Valjean]

Well..
I guess this is just a TV show...but Paris had really worked hard to get to Harvard...

O the ignominy! Relegated to Cornell.

 

[Estro Felino]

O the ignominy! Relegated to Cornell.

LoL...she went to Yale, if I recall correctly.
But yeah...it is just a TV show, after all...

 

[Revoltingest]

LoL...she went to Yale, if I recall correctly.
But yeah...it is just a TV show, after all...

I've heard the complaint before....someone worked hard,
& didn't get the desired result. I observe often that their
idea of "hard", their judgment of the work's quality, & the
reasonableness of their expectations are dubious.
Often the competition, is smarter, luckier, or somehow
otherwise advantaged. That's life. It still pays to strive
to be the person offering the most merit.

 

[Father Heathen]

When given a choice of working hard vs slacking off,
the former usually yields greater benefits.

So who has made an argument for slacking off or being lazy?

 

[Revoltingest]

So who has made an argument for slacking off or being lazy?

I don't know.
Is this a quiz?

 

[Friend of Mara]

There was a ballot in the 2020 California election called Proposition 16, that would have legalized the selection of employees based on race rather than merit. Of course this initiative was rejected by the California electorate, but I would like to discuss with fellow RF members their views on this. Would you support ending the prohibition of government institutions considering race, sex and ethnicity in the areas of public employment, public contracting, and public education..? Would some actually like to see public employers choosing staff based on race, sex, and ethnicity..? Is the United States a meritocracy..? Just curious.

Its not a meritocracy. Opportunity is equivalent to ability. While we have racial disparity of opportunity its mostly class based shackles. A poor white person for example is going to be worse off than a well off black person. Jeff Bezos for example isn't a god among men despite being the richest man to have ever lived. It was a mixture of luck, opportunity and abuse of the systems in place.