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Re:A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you by coliveira on Friday July 24, 2020 @05:44PM (#23944800)
> I have seen very wealthy people lose it all due to laziness and worldliness and I have seen very poor people become successful despite many roadblocks

Everyone knows about anecdotes like this. The real question is: how many rich people lose everything (especially the ones born into wealth)? How many extremely poor people move up a lot? You'll see that these are exceptions rather than a common event.

Re:A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it’s bad for you by recursivedoubts on Friday July 24, 2020 @07:59PM (#23945689)
I do not have any hard numbers on this information, although my general understanding is that social mobility has decreased lately. Unfortunately, that may be due to a number of reasons. Excluded from this conversation (luck vs. merit) is nepotism, for example, which is neither.

I am suspicious that this is not unintentional.