On Merit & Meritocracies

Most "progressives" are deeply resistant to a belief in the power of merit and the existence of meritocracies. Merit being defined as the ability that we are born with, the effort that we excerpt and the choices that we make in the face of life's constant challenges.

The primary reason for the unwillingness of progressives to accept the power of merit, is because it is incompatible with their faith in "victimology" and "socio-economic determinism." Generally, the left attributes the success and failure of individuals as almost exclusively being determined by systematic bias and pre-existing economic and social inequality. The left correctly believes that aptitude and effort are not the sole determinants of success and failure; the socio-economic environment in which an individual is born into is very important. Accordingly, it's unsound to attribute the economic and social reality of individuals entirely to their ability and efforts.

The problem with this narrative is that it does not factor in the millions of individuals in the United States that have ascended up or descended down the socio-economic ladder due to their choices, efforts and ability. Also, this narrative does not take into account the dramatically different performance of individuals of the same social, economic and racial backgrounds. Different groups may face different levels of discrimination, but within those groups there exists a wide range of economic and social economics, which is largely determined by merit.

As someone who has worked with countless immigrant landlords, I can attest to power of individuals to defy socio-economic determinism. These mostly Mexican, Polish, Greek, Serbian, Albanian and Romanian landlords arrived in the United States with no money and little or no English. They started at the bottom of the economic ladder, earning meager wages, mostly as janitors and handymen, but through years of hard work, long hours and fiscal austerity, they were able to save impressive amounts of money. From there, they were able to purchase their first building. In addition to their full time jobs, they served as their own building's plumber, painter, janitor and landscaper, using the savings to buy building after building. And finally after years of hard work they were able to provide their families a nice home and a better life in the suburbs. In many cases their children went on to be doctors and lawyers, further rising up the socio-economic ladder. Needless to say their native born and immigrant co-workers who chose to frivolously spend, rather than save and invest their money have economically stagnated or even declined.

Merit is not only manifested in economic affairs, but also in educational and cultural development. During my time as a teacher in various public and private schools, I witnessed students of the same social and economic background, in the same classroom demonstrate radically different performance. In this case, merit largely equalled the extent to which students were willing to utilize the resources that were presented to them. In good and bad, rich and poor schools, those who chose to commit their time and energy towards educational betterment surged ahead and no matter how much resources were directed their way, those who were lazy languished.

Unfortunately we are seeing that merit also effects the economic and social welfare of entire nations. As America's emphasis on hard work, savings and education has declined, so has our competitiveness.The end result of this shift has been a decline in America's wealth and welfare that no amount of state intervention can stem. In fact the state intervention we have witnessed under BushBama has expanded the sense of dependency and entitlement that has weakened every facet of our society from the classroom to the corporate boardroom, hastening our decline.