The story that rich people had to work hard to become rich is just mythology in practice. Plenty of people work hard, and many of them much harder, than those who become rich. There is a ton of empirical research showing that luck is the dominant factor in success and you simply need to be average to succeed. This is an objective fact of the world we live in.
People predominantly become rich because they were born into the right families giving them access to free time, education, capital, and the necessary connections. This has nothing to do with their personal qualities. Meanwhile, they accumulate further wealth by exploiting the labor of the people working for them. Nobody works a billion times harder than another person.
The reason to put effort into things is generally because you enjoy doing something or have an interest in a particular subject. Putting effort into things simply to make money is frankly the most pathetic reason to do anything.
You cant buy food with “Enjoy” “Love” or “Passion”.
You need to work hard in order to live.
“Putting effort into things simply to make money is frankly the most pathetic reason to do anything.” That is VERY naive. If you dont wanna make money then go living a simple life in the woods in a self sustainable home.
Now let me ask. What do you propose to replace Meritocracy in order to know if someone is fit for a job or a position? Or in order for society to work?
Yes, we’re stuck living in a society where majority of the population is forced to work hard just to meet their basic needs. And my point was that we do not have any kind of meritocracy in practice. Meanwhile, I grew up in USSR and people were plenty motivated there to pursue passions other than making money. Scientists, engineers, and artists were universally admired and looked up to. The country made huge strides in technological progress the likes of which have never been seen under capitalism. USSR leapt from an agrarian society to a world super power while doing the brunt of the work in WW2. That society was far more of a meritocracy than any capitalist one that I’ve seen.
Well, im currently living in Venezuela. They destroyed the “Meritocracy” in public administration, just to be replaced with “Im friends with…” or “Im the son/brother/cousin/fourth cousin from the sister of the mother of…” and the result is that the public administration is filled with incompetent people, ive seen people who goes to “work” at 10pm 3 times a week (in a 9to5 job).
And corruption is so rampant that some professions like “Policeman” are a joke, i dont mean that you can bribe them, i mean they ask you for the bribe and if you dont give it they beat you up.
Im in Law school and even lawyers are having a bad time because now the judges get the job because of “connections” and many of them are incredibly under qualified (we are talking recently graduated people in positions that require at least 3 masters and 10 years of teaching).
This country needs to get rid of the useless people and replace them with at least qualified professionals.
I’m not following how this relates to my original point I’m afraid. Nobody is arguing that people shouldn’t be selected for work based on their competence and skill. The point I made was that according to empirical research business success is largely an indicator that an average person got lucky.
The story that rich people had to work hard to become rich is just mythology in practice. Plenty of people work hard, and many of them much harder, than those who become rich. There is a ton of empirical research showing that luck is the dominant factor in success and you simply need to be average to succeed. This is an objective fact of the world we live in.
People predominantly become rich because they were born into the right families giving them access to free time, education, capital, and the necessary connections. This has nothing to do with their personal qualities. Meanwhile, they accumulate further wealth by exploiting the labor of the people working for them. Nobody works a billion times harder than another person.
The reason to put effort into things is generally because you enjoy doing something or have an interest in a particular subject. Putting effort into things simply to make money is frankly the most pathetic reason to do anything.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-role-of-luck-in-life-success-is-far-greater-than-we-realized/
https://www.monbiot.com/2011/11/07/the-self-attribution-fallacy/
You cant buy food with “Enjoy” “Love” or “Passion”. You need to work hard in order to live. “Putting effort into things simply to make money is frankly the most pathetic reason to do anything.” That is VERY naive. If you dont wanna make money then go living a simple life in the woods in a self sustainable home. Now let me ask. What do you propose to replace Meritocracy in order to know if someone is fit for a job or a position? Or in order for society to work?
Yes, we’re stuck living in a society where majority of the population is forced to work hard just to meet their basic needs. And my point was that we do not have any kind of meritocracy in practice. Meanwhile, I grew up in USSR and people were plenty motivated there to pursue passions other than making money. Scientists, engineers, and artists were universally admired and looked up to. The country made huge strides in technological progress the likes of which have never been seen under capitalism. USSR leapt from an agrarian society to a world super power while doing the brunt of the work in WW2. That society was far more of a meritocracy than any capitalist one that I’ve seen.
Well, im currently living in Venezuela. They destroyed the “Meritocracy” in public administration, just to be replaced with “Im friends with…” or “Im the son/brother/cousin/fourth cousin from the sister of the mother of…” and the result is that the public administration is filled with incompetent people, ive seen people who goes to “work” at 10pm 3 times a week (in a 9to5 job). And corruption is so rampant that some professions like “Policeman” are a joke, i dont mean that you can bribe them, i mean they ask you for the bribe and if you dont give it they beat you up. Im in Law school and even lawyers are having a bad time because now the judges get the job because of “connections” and many of them are incredibly under qualified (we are talking recently graduated people in positions that require at least 3 masters and 10 years of teaching). This country needs to get rid of the useless people and replace them with at least qualified professionals.
I’m not following how this relates to my original point I’m afraid. Nobody is arguing that people shouldn’t be selected for work based on their competence and skill. The point I made was that according to empirical research business success is largely an indicator that an average person got lucky.