I have lived the American Dream, from a trailer park to an Ivy League law degree.
What I Got Wrong About the American Meritocracy
Everyone’s half right and everyone’s simultaneously half wrong, and nobody is having a real conversation about what’s actually going on.
I have lived the American Dream, from a trailer park to an Ivy League law degree. It was my hard work (and government loans) that made my adult upper-middle-class life possible and the one I have given to my children. I BELIEVE in our American meritocracy.
Meritocracy and its importance to our nation are much in debate these days. A precursor to a legitimate meritocracy has always centered on education (unfortunately for America, admission NOT graduation**see below). For the future of our American meritocracy, the battle in local school boards about ending gifted programs is more important than Ivy League admissions stories.
“[W]hite students score an average of 1.5 to 2 grade levels higher than black students in the average district.” — Reardon, et al., 2019
Q — WHAT IS THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP?
A — ATTEMPTS TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: The definition of our American Meritocracy as it relates to education is in flux as America seeks to provide ‘equal opportunity for all’:
- an equal opportunity (anyone with the right scores can go to school)
- shifting to equal outcome (affirmative action — CLOSE THE GAP BY HELPING THE DISADVANTAGED) and now seems to be about
- getting even (decommissioning magnate schools — CLOSE THE GAP BY HARMING THE INTELLIGENT)
DANGER NOW: It seems this stubborn achievement gap, given that affirmative action has not narrowed it, is now widening with COVID-19. In response to this achievement gap, many school districts are dismantling successful ‘equal opportunity’ mechanisms in an apparent attempt to close the gap.
This achievement gap appears to be widening with COIV-19 lockdowns and remote learning.
Data from Curriculum Associates, creators of the i-Ready digital-instruction and -assessment software, suggest that only 60 percent of low-income students are regularly logging into online instruction; 90 percent of high-income students do. Engagement rates are also lagging behind in schools serving predominantly black and Hispanic students; just 60 to 70 percent are logging in regularly.
The goal of these attempts to close the achievement gap and be a true meritocracy is the premise that we, as a nation, wish our best and brightest to fulfill their potential AND everyone else too.
WHAT EVERYBODY GETS WRONG
The purpose of the meritocratic system is to provide opportunities to succeed in our market-based nation. The part both progressives and conservatives undervalue is that LUCK & GOOD LOOKS has an impact just as intelligence and diligence have an impact in our ‘Merticocratic’ America.
There are five separate keys to success in the modern United States economy. Some of them are meritocratic, some of them aren’t, and some of them are simultaneously meritocratic and unfair. These are the five.
- How intelligent you are,
- How charismatic you are, including how good you look,
- How hard you work (diligence),
- How lucky you are,
- How rich your parents are.
The Grid
MERITOCRACY IN CRISIS: WHAT I GOT WRONG ABOUT THE AMERICAN MERITOCRACY
FIRST MISTAKE: Meritocracy does not guarantee equal outcomes
The authentic danger of our elite-generating meritocracy is wonderfully set out by Daniel Markovits in his book The Meritocracy Trap. The rich today are no longer an indolent “leisure class” but what Markovits calls a “superordinate” working class: they work harder, longer, and perform more high-skilled work than ever before. As a result, Markovits calculates that three-quarters of elite income now originates from labor rather than inherited capital.
A foundational assumption of meritocratic aspirations is that a more fully meritocratic society is also a more equal one. But Markovits’s analysis leads to the opposite conclusion: Skyrocketing inequality has taken place on meritocracy’s own terms.
SECOND MISTAKE: the real problem is GRADUATION, not ADMISSION
This achievement gap has a significant negative impact on university/college graduation rates (thus negating the perceived benefit from Affirmative Action programs). ** No matter how students get in (equal opportunity as equal scores or affirmative action as equal outcome).
THIRD MISTAKE: IT’S NOT THE ONE PERCENT, IT’S THE TWENTY PERCENT CREATING A CLASS FLOOR
The issue is the top 20 percent, aka the Upper Middle Class, have placed a Class Floor under their children. Unlike any other country, America’s top 20 percent live like the ONE PERCENT of most countries. GLASS CEILINGS may get most of the media attention, but Reeves points out that it is the CLASS FLOORS parents put under their kids that is a bigger problem. If you are going to provide more opportunities and good neighborhoods, public schools, colleges, internship programs, and labor markets to lower-income families, it is the 20 percent that must give something up — including that “CLASS FLOOR” they put under their kids evidenced by the admissions scandal and expensive prep courses for the children of the top 20.
The best description of the CLASS FLOOR is Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by a British-born American citizen, Richard V. Reeves.
The book traces how the upper-middle class has pulled away from the middle class and the poor on five dimensions: income and wealth, educational attainment, family structure, geography, and health and longevity. The top 20 percent are not gaining like the top one percent and America’s billionaires. Still, they dominate the country’s top colleges, isolate themselves in wealthy neighborhoods with excellent public schools and public services, and enjoy healthy bodies and long lives.
Dream Hoarders identifies a clear danger of a vicious cycle developing here. As inequality between the top 20 percent and the rest grows, parents will become more determined to ensure their children stay near the top. They work hard to put a “glass floor” under their kids to prevent them from losing ground. Inequality and immobility thus become self-reinforcing.
After listing a number of reasonable efforts to equalize opportunity, Dream Hoarders acknowledges “there is much that can be done if the political will and money can be found. There will be price tags attached to some of these policies, of course, but the upper-middle class can be asked and can afford to pay.”
WHAT CONSERVATIVES GET WRONG: we’re already a meritocratic society
We’re half meritocratic, half not. Hard work is not enough, as in it definitely has a ceiling, but sure hard work does make a difference. Unfortunately, our understanding of merit — view of this GRID matrix (above) — is distorted by social media, general media, and academia. For example, celebrities are basically just pretty people who either got lucky (whether they worked hard or not). If your parents are rich enough you’re a celebrity (and successful) by default (Paris Hilton) also they can provide the tools of a good education to aid intelligence.
WHAT PROGRESSIVES GET WRONG: those with merit can’t succeed.
Most of the challenge to our modern American meritocracy comes from the progressives, who can’t differentiate between meritocracy and fairness as an equal outcome. One of the defining characteristics of progressives is their fairness fetish. If something is meritocratic yet unfair, progressives consider it evil. This analysis failure pervades modern discourse and risks the loss of our Meritocratic America and the abundance it has generated.
BEST DISCUSSION I’VE FOUND ON INEQUALITY:
I can’t think of a better way for America to honor its national creed of liberty and justice for all.
BACK TO THE LARGEST CONCERN I SEE TODAY
VICE OR VIRTUE SIGNALING? ENVY UNBOUND — destroying the ladder to success for the talented
Unfortunately, the progressive movement’s attempt to dismantle meritocratic mechanisms puts the half of the American Meritocracy that is working at risk. Progressives seem to think, any inequality is bad. This is not indignation, but envy. Today, the personal vice of envy has been made into a virtue by politicians and social justice warriors by manipulating the human tendency to envy.
A common misconception is to confuse envy with indignation. In Aristotle’s Rhetoric, he stresses the difference between the two concepts. The indignant person feels anger at the prosperity of those who do not deserve it and the envious at that of everyone.
Indignation is felt at the well-being of evil persons while envy at the happiness of the good ones.
In contrast to Envy, indignation is not a vice as it is rooted in a desire for justice. Envy, on the other hand, as Schopenhauer noted, is rooted in the inevitable comparison between our own situation and that of others. When comparison to another elicits awareness of our inferiorities (be it in terms of wealth, possessions, mental or physical characteristics), this can generate envy.
Individuals gripped by envy (masked by a claim of social justice) view those subjectively superior to them (Yes, a meritocracy is supposed to encourage such superiority) as enemies rather than focusing on improving themselves. The envious believe that their path to happiness is tied to the fate of those they envy. Paradoxically, they believe that somehow their happiness will be increased if they can pull others down.
A desire to see others brought down does not nurture a prosperous society; instead, it hinders social progress.
CONCLUSION
Our future is in danger. This disconnect on our American Meritocracy by both conservatives and progressives may result in a new ‘equality’ that kills the American Dream.
Conservatives need to appreciate that America is only a half-meritocracy and differentiate between inequality and unfairness.
Modern American progressives seek an idealized ‘meritocratic society’ defining merit as labor alone. Progressives' fairness fetich is driven by a desire to get even instead of equal opportunity (like closing magnet schools). But we all know in real life the hot server gets the most tips, and we all also know that’s not fair to the frumpy server, while we still tip the hot one. The current attempt to make Americans equal could destroy the part of the American Meritocracy that is working (even if it creates unequal wealth).
Conservatives counter these attacks by overstating how meritocratic America actually is. Honestly, most of the people we see as successful must credit luck to some degree — they don’t deserve to be there.
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Everyone’s half right and everyone’s simultaneously half wrong, and nobody is having a real conversation about what’s actually going on.
** No matter how students get in (equal opportunity as equal scores or affirmative action as equal outcome), the real problem is not
ADMISSION but GRADUATION.
5-YEAR GRADUATION GAP
- Asian/Pacific Islander students in bachelor’s programs have a 5-year graduation rate of 69.3%.
- White or Caucasian students in bachelor’s programs have a 5-year graduation rate of 62.2%
- Students of two or more races enrolled in bachelor’s programs have a 5-year graduation rate of 50.4%
- Hispanic or Latino students in bachelor’s programs have a 5-year graduation rate of 41.5%.
- Black or African American students in bachelor’s programs have a 5-year graduation rate of 40.5%.
- American Indian/Alaska Native students in bachelor’s programs have a 5-year graduation rate of 39.3%
6-YEAR GRADUATION GAP
The 6-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time undergraduate students who began their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree at a 4-year degree-granting institution in fall 2010 was highest for Asian students (74 percent), followed by White students (64 percent), students of Two or more races (60 percent), Hispanic students (54 percent), Pacific Islander students (51 percent), Black students (40 percent), and American Indian/Alaska Native students (39 percent). Nation Center for Education Statistics , The Brookings Institution (2020)
