• ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
    link
    24 years ago

    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.

    • @vis4valentine
      link
      24 years ago

      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.

      • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆
        link
        14 years ago

        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.