Re:How to prevent a meritocracy entrenching itself
by stcredzero on Saturday February 09, 2013 @06:00PM
(#5194471)
> Doesn't sound like a meritocracy to me.
Yes, but nothing made out of organized humans ever adheres to mathematically rigorous definition. (1)
Our lot is loads better than that of some poor orphan in Haiti, and our opportunities were distributed with tons more equity. That said, it's far from perfect. There are parts of our messy society that are close to meritocracy, and there's other parts that are headache inducing doppelgangers of it. It's a mess, but you can also think of it as opportunity.
((1) - In fact, whenever you think you are about to make a clever or skeptical point in a societally based intellectual discussion, tell yourself this first, then see if you still want to. Same goes for biology and software engineering.)
Re:How to prevent a meritocracy entrenching itself
by druswick on Saturday February 09, 2013 @10:36AM
(#5192777)
I think the article did a poor job of representing the recent efforts by elite universities to open up access to the children of farmers and auto-mechanics. http://npc.fas.harvard.edu/
There's still more to be done, sure, but it's important to mention that this isn't as bad as it was even 10 years ago.
Re:How to prevent a meritocracy entrenching itself
by BadCookie on Saturday February 09, 2013 @04:26PM
(#5194086)
Interesting. I'm the daughter of an electrician. I was admitted to Harvard in 2002, and at that time I believe they wanted my parents to pay about $12,000 for my first year. My parents couldn't afford it, and I did not attend. If that calculator is to be believed, Harvard would now expect less than $3000 from my parents. I probably would have attended had that been the case back then.
And then;
>Nobody's saying children of farmers or auto-mechanics are any less able. They just don't get the best training.
So it's a meritocracy but the training isn't available to all? Doesn't sound like a meritocracy to me.