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The problem with America’s upper-middle class and meritocracy

18 points by tonyedgecombe 5y ago

nickthemagicman 5y ago
Meritocracy exists for people with money. It takes money to fulfill your potential and be able to participate in meritocracy which by definition reward people according to their merit. If you can't even fulfill your merit, like a huge part of the world, youre not really in a meritocracy. For most people instead of meritocracy, it's take what limited opportunities you have in your life and use those to eke out whatever success you can. Some few average people get lucky. But far more rich 'get lucky' by virtue of their resources. Meritocracy is just marketing.
xhkkffbf 5y ago
Hmmm. Is it really a problem that some people work hard and take care of their kids? That seems to be the point at the core this article. And then there's the claim that the so-called 9.9% "lack imagination." This seems disconnected from reality because I think one of the biggest job requirements these days is imagination and adaptability.
- tonyedgecombe 5y ago
  It's a problem that they can buy their way into better opportunities at the cost of the rest of the population.
  - rc2634 5y ago
    What’s the point of money if you can’t buy your way into a happier and more prosperous life with it, especially for your children?
    - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
      At an individual level it makes sense, we would all do the same in that position. The problems are obvious when you step away from that and look at it from a societal perspective.
- avmich 5y ago
  > Is it really a problem that some people work hard and take care of their kids? Sort of. The article is about unhappiness in the society - including hard working child carers. It's not the reason for the problem, but it's a symptom. > This seems disconnected from reality because I think one of the biggest job requirements these days is imagination and adaptability. A person can be very imaginative at his or her work and took for granted some over-simplified models, like "unproven vaccines cause autism". Similarly, here imagination is needed to see the bigger picture.
seattle_spring 5y ago
Author just strikes me as another person tricked into focusing on the upper middle class instead the actual elite. This is why "tax the rich" ends up hitting working professionals like doctors while billionaires get tax cuts. The relative difference between the middle class and the upper middle class is miniscule compared to the difference between the 1% and the 0.1%.
- JustAnonymous 5y ago
  Maybe. But the top 10% supports the current system politically, culturally, and intellectually. They are the bedrock on which rotting empire currently sits and intend to sit themselves until it falls apart. As such, I don't sympathise with Doctors/Accountants/etc being taxed out the ass when they as a class back every scheme, scam, and foreign war the mainstream media pitches this week.
- rsj_hn 5y ago
  No, the upper middle class is the one screwing everything up. Not the billionaires. Want to have cheap healthcare? You can't have that with doctors earning 400K and nurses earning 120K. It's impossible. But you can have that with a few billionaires. Want affordable university education? You can't have that with universities that have 3 non-academic full time staff for every full time professor. It's impossible. But you can have that with a few billionaires. Want a genuine left party in the US? The professional classes are what co-opted the progressive movement, not billionaires. Who does outsourcing benefit? Primarily managers and business process outsourcers. They are the ones driving outsourcing, as it creates a swollen professional class and the blue collar workers they manage are viewed as cogs. This is also why there is the rise of culture wars as the professionals need a justification to let them sleep at night as they screw the domestic working class, and that justification is that the working class people deserve to be screwed because they don't support trans rights or some other niche cause that serves as a moral differentiator between the urban professional classes and the working class. Tired of the Administrative state? That's not happening because of billionaires, it's happening because the professional classes have extracted all that the market will allow, and now need to extract even more, using the power of the state to increase their control over society and extract more resources from it. I recommend reading Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank. He has some choice words for the professional class, and a good history of their ascendancy.
nobodyandproud 5y ago
A bullshit class-war driven by the absolutely wealthy: https://slate.com/business/2018/05/forget-the-atlantics-9-9-percent-the-1-percent-are-still-the-problem.html https://slate.com/business/2018/05/forget-the-atlantics-9-9-...
- GaryTang 5y ago
  Yup. And nevermind the top 1%, it’s the top 0.01% that are calling the shots. Taxation any lower is just misguided.
macrowhat 5y ago
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18 points by tonyedgecombe 5y ago

Meritocracy exists for people with money. It takes money to fulfill your potential and be able to participate in meritocracy which by definition reward people according to their merit. If you can't even fulfill your merit, like a huge part of the world, youre not really in a meritocracy. For most people instead of meritocracy, it's take what limited opportunities you have in your life and use those to eke out whatever success you can. Some few average people get lucky. But far more rich 'get lucky' by virtue of their resources. Meritocracy is just marketing.

xhkkffbf 5y ago

Hmmm. Is it really a problem that some people work hard and take care of their kids? That seems to be the point at the core this article. And then there's the claim that the so-called 9.9% "lack imagination." This seems disconnected from reality because I think one of the biggest job requirements these days is imagination and adaptability.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago
It's a problem that they can buy their way into better opportunities at the cost of the rest of the population.
- rc2634 5y ago
  What’s the point of money if you can’t buy your way into a happier and more prosperous life with it, especially for your children?
  - tonyedgecombe 5y ago
    At an individual level it makes sense, we would all do the same in that position. The problems are obvious when you step away from that and look at it from a societal perspective.
avmich 5y ago
> Is it really a problem that some people work hard and take care of their kids? Sort of. The article is about unhappiness in the society - including hard working child carers. It's not the reason for the problem, but it's a symptom. > This seems disconnected from reality because I think one of the biggest job requirements these days is imagination and adaptability. A person can be very imaginative at his or her work and took for granted some over-simplified models, like "unproven vaccines cause autism". Similarly, here imagination is needed to see the bigger picture.

seattle_spring 5y ago

Author just strikes me as another person tricked into focusing on the upper middle class instead the actual elite. This is why "tax the rich" ends up hitting working professionals like doctors while billionaires get tax cuts. The relative difference between the middle class and the upper middle class is miniscule compared to the difference between the 1% and the 0.1%.

JustAnonymous 5y ago
Maybe. But the top 10% supports the current system politically, culturally, and intellectually. They are the bedrock on which rotting empire currently sits and intend to sit themselves until it falls apart. As such, I don't sympathise with Doctors/Accountants/etc being taxed out the ass when they as a class back every scheme, scam, and foreign war the mainstream media pitches this week.
rsj_hn 5y ago
No, the upper middle class is the one screwing everything up. Not the billionaires. Want to have cheap healthcare? You can't have that with doctors earning 400K and nurses earning 120K. It's impossible. But you can have that with a few billionaires. Want affordable university education? You can't have that with universities that have 3 non-academic full time staff for every full time professor. It's impossible. But you can have that with a few billionaires. Want a genuine left party in the US? The professional classes are what co-opted the progressive movement, not billionaires. Who does outsourcing benefit? Primarily managers and business process outsourcers. They are the ones driving outsourcing, as it creates a swollen professional class and the blue collar workers they manage are viewed as cogs. This is also why there is the rise of culture wars as the professionals need a justification to let them sleep at night as they screw the domestic working class, and that justification is that the working class people deserve to be screwed because they don't support trans rights or some other niche cause that serves as a moral differentiator between the urban professional classes and the working class. Tired of the Administrative state? That's not happening because of billionaires, it's happening because the professional classes have extracted all that the market will allow, and now need to extract even more, using the power of the state to increase their control over society and extract more resources from it. I recommend reading Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People? by Thomas Frank. He has some choice words for the professional class, and a good history of their ascendancy.

nobodyandproud 5y ago

A bullshit class-war driven by the absolutely wealthy: https://slate.com/business/2018/05/forget-the-atlantics-9-9-percent-the-1-percent-are-still-the-problem.html https://slate.com/business/2018/05/forget-the-atlantics-9-9-...

GaryTang 5y ago
Yup. And nevermind the top 1%, it’s the top 0.01% that are calling the shots. Taxation any lower is just misguided.

macrowhat 5y ago

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