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Meritocracy set out from birth, no? Are not all people in that book test tube children with specific selected genomes? I fail to see how creating a class of gen
by TT3351 6y ago
Meritocracy set out from birth, no? Are not all people in that book test tube children with specific selected genomes? I fail to see how creating a class of genetic garbage men, relegated to working with trash for their entire lives is "meritocratic," since advocates of the meritocracy concept generally rely on the system's alleged mobility.
- ForHackernews 6y agoReminder that "meritocracy" came to prominence in a satirical essay: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_Meritocracy Unfortunately a bunch of folks read that and thought it was a great idea.
- throwaway2048 6y agoPretty sure people see the first 5 letters, and then decide since they've earned everything in life, its a great idea.
- ThrowawayR2 6y agoFrom what I recall from reading it, the meritocracy part actually worked incredibly well, yielding tremendous technological advances. It was the secondary effects of pushing meritocracy to extremes that were the problem.
- Nasrudith 6y agoWell of course - his underlying thesis was weak and failed to show how it would be worse off than the status quo. No wonder it caught on when what was mocked is a better idea than the current system! The downsides again failed to be worse than a fixed caste system and relied upon bad extrapolations.
- jhbadger 6y agoBut it would be a great idea if it were real. The problem isn't in the theoretical idea of a meritocracy. It's that the real world isn't nearly as meritocratic as assumed and a lot of people in high places got there by connections, being from wealthy families, and so on and not due to their own merits.
- me_me_me 6y agoMeritocracy - government or the holding of power by people selected according to merit. Every single person in that world IS selected for their role in society based on merit. There is no asterics attached there with +1 conditions. I am not saying that it is a good system as a matter of fact I call it dystopian, only that everyone in it was rather content with their lives.