Conformity has nothing to do meritocracy?

Besides I know that mobility and meritocracy don't map perfectly but Japan is actually a society with more intergenerational mobility than the US and about half of Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Gatsby_curve#/media/File...

The "intergenerational earnings elasticity" cited in that curve work as follows [1]: "In a society with equal opportunity, a father's income would have no relation to that of his son (a correlation of 0). On the other hand, a country where jobs and income transition from one generation to the next would have a correlation of 1."

So if we define "intergenerational mobility" as the economic mobility of a family over multiple generations, Japan is actually on the lower end, as there's less correlation between your parent's occupation/wealth and your own. As an example, your father could work hard and gain a higher economic position, but in Japan that advantage has a smaller effect on you and your potential.

I understand there's a fair argument on the other side where you could have more power to determine your own future, but I doubt that's directly correlated to your parents' ability to provide opportunity and a better life; unless we assume a zero-sum game.

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/intergenerational-earnings-el...

>So if we define "intergenerational mobility" as the economic mobility of a family over multiple generations, Japan is actually on the lower end, as there's less correlation between your parent's occupation/wealth and your own.

Less correlation between between your parent's wealth and your wealth is mobility, I think you're confused.

>As an example, your father could work hard and gain a higher economic position, but in Japan that advantage has a smaller effect on you and your potential.

Yes? That's a good thing, that means the society is more mobile. A society where your parent's economic position grants a large advantage on you and your potential is inherently less mobile.

> Less correlation between between your parent's wealth and your wealth is mobility

That's absolutely true, if we're talking about individual mobility, but I was commenting on the idea of intergenerational mobility as mentioned in the parent and also in other places in this thread.

If your parent's economic position is irrelevant to your own, then every generation effectively 'resets' and there is not intergenerational mobility, which I took to mean as the gradual economic mobility of a family over multiple generations.

> A society where your parent's economic position grants a large advantage on you and your potential is inherently less mobile

While there is very likely a correlation here, most economists agree that economics in society is not a zero-sum game and thus one person's advantage as a result of their parents won't necessitate another's disadvantage to an equal degree. It's not a direct correlation; and that's before we factor in the increased motivation to innovate for your children's futures that come with an economic inheritance system, so on and so forth.

What does conformity have to do with meritocracy? They seem orthogonal.

Stability is a more appropriate term.

Japanese culture values stability very highly. People in this thread believe this kind of stability results in low economic mobility. In the US, people associate high economic mobility with meritocracy.

There's a couple leaps to be made in both associations, but I think that's what the gist is.

You have to conform to the "life plan" of your station, what your parents expect, what they raise you to, what your peers (from a similar background) are doing.

From the wiki: "prefer the continuation of a harmonious community over their personal interests". That's directly opposed to meritocracy.

And how measure a societies level of either. Few would disagree that conformity was stronger in Japan than the US, but it’s got to be hard to measure.