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I'm not sure you've identified a cause instead of a symptom. If Harvard stopped accepting legacy admissions and donors and elites as much, would that mean that

I'm not sure you've identified a cause instead of a symptom. If Harvard stopped accepting legacy admissions and donors and elites as much, would that mean that the other people would get those political and judicial appointments, or would Harvard just lose status as an important institution? Another way to look at it is whether those Harvard attendees are being appointed because of Harvard, or because of the connections they made with sufficiently powerful people also destined for similar positions at that time? Of you reduce those people, eventually you may reduce the effectiveness of going there, not increase the ability of non rich people that go there getting those positions, as Harvard itself maybe isn't the most important factor. Personally, I think it's mostly just nepotism, whether Harvard or Yale or whatever, and reducing the effectiveness of nepotism from going to Harvard will just cause people that would benefit from it to shift to a different institution that does the same. If you want to combat nepotism, stopping g people from meeting at one specific place may be the hardest and least effective way of doing so. If your goal is to promote non legacy people to positions of power, maybe just encourage more of those people at Harvard while also keeping the legacy people, and make nepotism work in your favor.

deely3 3y ago
Ok, so, "nepotism in Harvard is good, because without nepotism Harvard will not be Harvard and nepotism will emerge in another institution, and in the end it will be the same." Do I understand you correctly?
- kbenson 3y ago
  Not quite. My position is that nepotism is bad but I think while we can reduce it I think it's impossible to eliminate based on human nature, but maybe we can use that to the benefit of society. Rather than make ineffective one of the many pipelines that elites use to meet each other and form connections which they use in their nepotism to enhance themselves and their friends, perhaps we can use it to promote a more representative set of elites through that nepotism.

deely3 3y ago

Ok, so, "nepotism in Harvard is good, because without nepotism Harvard will not be Harvard and nepotism will emerge in another institution, and in the end it will be the same." Do I understand you correctly?

kbenson 3y ago
Not quite. My position is that nepotism is bad but I think while we can reduce it I think it's impossible to eliminate based on human nature, but maybe we can use that to the benefit of society. Rather than make ineffective one of the many pipelines that elites use to meet each other and form connections which they use in their nepotism to enhance themselves and their friends, perhaps we can use it to promote a more representative set of elites through that nepotism.