- To reward on merit is to assume an equal distribution of skill
- Failure in merit is to imply they did not try hard enough
- Technocratic leadership removes moral; the technical aspects dictate choices and decisions
- Merit is important to efficiency
- Meritocracy allows us to believe we get what we deserve
- The protestants celebrated that we were predestined and focused on manifesting their election through their intense work
- Belief in Providence became spiritual sanctions for the status quo
- Wealth is the confluence of personal effort and providential benefit
- “Right side of history” is a moral call that assumes that history is an unbiased telling of events, not a narrative written by the victor, and is used to supplant the notion of Providence
- “America is great because America is good”
- If I am successful because of my work then others have failed because their lack of work
- “Markets give people what they deserve”
- Meritocracy leads to a sense of deserving things
- “Credentialism: the last acceptable prejudice”
- “Smart” is the merit based replacement for moral (much like “right side of history”)
- Incentivizing side-steps governance and persuasion
- Persuasion is critical to democratic processes
- Education is not the problem (people who are more scientifically literate are more likely to have polarized views on climate change)
- An aristocracy dismisses the illusion that the successful deserve their status; workers do not disparage themselves because they were not able to succeed
- If I do not deserve benefit from my birth, then why would I deserve benefit from my talents
- Wages are not rewards for character or merit but rather economic value
- Equal opportunity does make things just because of the unequal distribution in abilities
- Economic value is not the same as moral values
- Education for the past two century have been focused on “sorting” the population based on intelligence
- Colleges tend to consolidate privilege and not provide opportunity
- We should focus on repairing the conditioning from which people want to flee rather than just enabling their movement
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