Comments on: The rot in the heart of the "meritocracy" http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/07/the-rot-in-the-heart-of-the-meritocracy/ Sat, 25 May 2013 17:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: asdf http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/07/the-rot-in-the-heart-of-the-meritocracy/#comment-43818 asdf Tue, 10 Jul 2012 19:05:55 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/?p=17209#comment-43818 What is merit? Merit is about winning. Nothing about winning means everyone wins. Noblese Oblige requires that the nobles know their priviledge is unearned, and thus they have to give back to those nice enough to accept their priviledge. What is merit? Merit is about winning. Nothing about winning means everyone wins.

Noblese Oblige requires that the nobles know their priviledge is unearned, and thus they have to give back to those nice enough to accept their priviledge.

]]> By: Steve Johnson http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/07/the-rot-in-the-heart-of-the-meritocracy/#comment-43817 Steve Johnson Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:36:49 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/?p=17209#comment-43817 Meritocracy combined with a wide gap in outcomes between those who make it and those who just miss is an extremely dangerous combination. On average the children of the winners will not reach the status of their parents and will be out competed by some child of a just missed parent (lots more just missed than there are people who made it). Hence, if there's a short term / long term conflict the incentive is to cash out - for example, by destroying the reputation of the medical community but making a huge amount of cash from pharmaceutical companies. Unless you're in the top of the distribution of doctors and your spouse is as well your children are likely to benefit rather than suffer for your decision. Meritocracy combined with a wide gap in outcomes between those who make it and those who just miss is an extremely dangerous combination. On average the children of the winners will not reach the status of their parents and will be out competed by some child of a just missed parent (lots more just missed than there are people who made it).

Hence, if there’s a short term / long term conflict the incentive is to cash out – for example, by destroying the reputation of the medical community but making a huge amount of cash from pharmaceutical companies. Unless you’re in the top of the distribution of doctors and your spouse is as well your children are likely to benefit rather than suffer for your decision.

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