If you haven’t yet read Kurt Vonnegut’s short story, Harrison Bergeron, you’re missing out. It’s a smart, humorous way to push our thinking on the limits of equality. It’s available for free in several places online. Here’s one. Published in 1961, it begins like this:
Nov 24, 2023·edited Nov 24, 2023Liked by Ilana Redstone
I think it's a Michael Lind (or Michael Sandel?) book where he has the following complaint about a meritocratic society:
In an aristocracy, the day laborer could at the lord and think "But for the accident of birth, there go I". And the lord could think the same thing. The laborer could maintain some essential human dignity even if his economic worth was low. And the lord had some nagging doubt about his worth that forced him to have a bit of humility. In a meritocracy, that's lost. If you're on the economic bottom, that's on you. And if you're successful, pat yourself on the back.
This is a real problem. All people and all work has dignity, but that's hard to focus on when CEO-to-worker wage ratios are so high.
I've been reading "Democracy In America", and Tocqueville talks about how everyone is obsessed with getting rich, that America is the "land of opportunity" (obviously ignoring slavery). But at the same time, he says that the gregarious nature of American society forces everyone to recognize that they do exist in a society, where people associate (across cultural and class boundaries) to accomplish social goals, so no one can completely think that their success was solely the result of their own efforts.
I think it's a Michael Lind (or Michael Sandel?) book where he has the following complaint about a meritocratic society:
In an aristocracy, the day laborer could at the lord and think "But for the accident of birth, there go I". And the lord could think the same thing. The laborer could maintain some essential human dignity even if his economic worth was low. And the lord had some nagging doubt about his worth that forced him to have a bit of humility. In a meritocracy, that's lost. If you're on the economic bottom, that's on you. And if you're successful, pat yourself on the back.
This is a real problem. All people and all work has dignity, but that's hard to focus on when CEO-to-worker wage ratios are so high.
I've been reading "Democracy In America", and Tocqueville talks about how everyone is obsessed with getting rich, that America is the "land of opportunity" (obviously ignoring slavery). But at the same time, he says that the gregarious nature of American society forces everyone to recognize that they do exist in a society, where people associate (across cultural and class boundaries) to accomplish social goals, so no one can completely think that their success was solely the result of their own efforts.