Why meritocracy is a LIE... (it's way worse than people realize)

[@stoferb876]

I'm from the lower class here in Sweden, and never ever I have heard about believing that our society is a meritocracy. On the contrary the going mantra when I grew up was "Life is not fair". Not as a call for change but as a saying that it's pointless to get upset about injustices since they are everywhere and unavoidable. A bit like when you say this or that is unfair, and the answer is: So what? Life isn't fair. My grandfather was very agitated and upset about how the social wellfare state he had contributed to building up was getting degraded and corrupted and gradually starting to be destroyed when he retired (and this was in the 80ies). My mother had stories about how still in her child-hood, the 1940ies and 1950ies, the local big wigs children had been favored by the teacher to basically steal another students grades so they could get in to some high school despite actually failing their studies. So when I hear about how many swedes now believe in some kind of meritocracy it just boggles my mind. Where is it? Pray tell.

[@karambiatos]

"A bit like when you say this or that is unfair, and the answer is: So what? Life isn't fair." I hate this, you should complain you should speak about it.

[@michaeljohndennis2231]

@@karambiatosthings will never change, that’s just the way it is - the more things change, the more things stay the same, even get worse, especially if we attempt to complain about it, as it is deemed on a common sense basis, that as the lower classes, we do not have any right to make any comments on any issues, as coming from us, it will never be listened to and will never be taken seriously, as it is deemed to be inappropriate - we are merely to be seen and not heard and to know our place, as there is no real equality, except in shared misery and shared suffering

[@ryanseddon4800]

It’s valuable that you point out your grandfather was upset with these destructive attitudes….. In Sweden and many other countries it is accepted that such attitudes have always been around and that its cultural to say “so what, that’s life”…… The truth is that this is a recent swing that took social engineering to become cultural.

[@iggoz]

My teatcher used to say that the only thing thats fair is that we all will die. This was like 2000 in sweden.

[@felixlagemann8109]

Isn't university free in Sweden? I don't understand how you're locked into the lower class in Sweden.

[@n-tertainmentx-tended4760]

First-generation rich people are usually talented. Often their children are not.

[@jgdooley2003]

I have seen the imperative of need being a great driver in people developing talents and abilities. Often the general public perceive talents as being god-given where in reality they are the result of high levels of effort, intense learning and having good teachers and peers in the same field to guide you along the path to high performance and often a large slice of luck. The children of high performers may no need to be as talented as their parents because they do not have to be due to having a ready supply of money and assets to drift along.

[@rudiwiedemann8173]

Old saying: Grandpa was “thunder”, Pops was “wonder” and. The Kid is “plunder”.

[@SnorriTheLlama]

@@jgdooley2003 Most great people I’ve met in business have started from fairly low down, been exceptionally hungry/hard workers and willing to put in the time, and had excellent mentoring from others throughout their career. I’ve seen a good quote from some Roman or Greek saying that men aren’t born brave, but you can train them to be.

[@joeswanson733]

first gen makes the money, second gen maintains the money, third gen starts spending the money, 4th gen just splurges. we'll use bill gates for example since he is the one taht made the fortune. even though he grew up in a upper upper middle class family. so he's gen 1. his kids are gen 2 and they seem like they're smart or well educated because well how could you not be. so the rreal test would be what will happen to the gates third and 4th generation or beyond. i mean we have the rockefeller family where they have broken the rule of past 4th gen where the descendants of john d are still doing ok but that's only because their family trust was so huge that there's just no way for any of the John D to really end up destitute unless they became drug addicts or something.

[@James_Brown.]

​@@jgdooley2003 doesn’t talent mean the exact opposite? A highly talented individual is someone who can achieve high performance with little to no effort, compared to their peers. According to the dictionary, talent is defined as “a natural skill or ability to be good at something, especially without being taught”, "a natural skill or ability". For example, there are kids who score exceptionally well on IQ tests without preparation and outshine their peers with little to no effort.

[@Curious_Citizen0]

This is the quality youtube should strive for, quality of content, the topic and execution!! nice work mate

[@sujitdsouza]

Equal opportunity in terms of education, healthcare and zero poverty. Nobody should go hungry. Financial literacy should be taught early in schools. The most important question in meritocracy is to what extent are you willing to sell your SOUL to succeed in your aspirations. Its a choice that people make sometimes, LITERALLY at the expense of human lives

[@Devil_Around_Midnight]

Its easy for you to say white people have to pay their own blood and lives to feed everyone and every country who isnt capable of it themselves. Actually they want what we have built but when we are forced to pay for everything this dream will die and we will all go starve, just slightly less. People who didnt manifest societies where people create their own food and objects should have no rights to what others create.

[@Devil_Around_Midnight]

Sure buddy

[@hainleysimpson1507]

Parents are the ones to teach that.

[@sujitdsouza]

@@hainleysimpson1507 Sometimes even middle class families don't teach their children financial literacy let alone the other classes of people. The credit culture is growing in India but is nowhere close to the epidemic that it is in America. People in India are buying goods on installment payment basis(called EMis) now.

[@ramonbril]

aristocracy is the word you're searching for. Our's is about 300 years in power now. Those who don't know aren't powerful enough to know.

[@johnkeane1419]

Survivorship bias is an important feature of social mobility narratives.

[@kingcuckoo]

You're a little biased too. It's fucked for young people right now but historically America has constantly delivered on the dream.

[@kimandre336]

Meritocracy only works if that country is authoritarianism. After watching this, it does look like free election is a product of aristocracy. The western world is itself a aristocracy, not meritocracy per se.

[@aq8211]

“Its called the american dream because you have to be asleep to believe it” - George Carlin

[@TheMarketExit]

That's great!

[@davidlafleche1142]

The American Dream did exist, but it was killed by Government overspending.

[@FINNSTIGAT0R]

@@TheMarketExit Also in every comment section which handle things like this

[@TheThinker43]

You can sit around and complain or you can get you butt in gear and go be valuable to people , learn a skill , trade , start a business or work for someone else and be excellent then you’ll be the guy that’s doing well. It’s a law of the universe

[@brianthatweirdbarberguy]

​@@TheThinker43it's like you didn't even watch the video

[@ordesolomons9545]

To add, on a granular level, the very common occurrence that the merit worthy actions of an individual goes unrecognised and unacknowledged by those around them by peers and those in authority.

[@telebiopic]

The axiom that ‘all humans are created equal’, is often wrongly attributed to enlightenment, it presupposes God and creation and nor does it say ‘remain equal’. The complete meaning in Christianity from where this philosophy stems from is … equal in the eyes of God, since your wealth and physical appeal have no bearing on God the creator. However sentient conscious organisms organize themselves in hierarchies whether you take for example birds, orcas, lions or ants. Any hierarchy is a surrogate for power distribution. The right optimization should be on justice & fairness.

[@saturationstation1446]

my eyes just rolled clear across the planet... yall better hope there isnt a god because i doubt it would be very forgiving for the self obsessed mass murder of life on earth that well off people cant seem to stop doing. trying to naturalize eurocentric monarchist behavior is what made academia accept a theory which only has evidence against it as dogmatic truth... according to darwin, an animal has a sudden beneficial mutation then impregnates the majority of females in its species... because thats statistically the only way his theory makes mathematical sense. other than that, with there being not a single example of adaptive mutation having ever happened in both the living and fossil record, is further proof against his theory. its a theory he created due to being a eugenicist thanks to that being the only acceptable state of mind in eurocentric culture. he viewed nature throught the lens of european monarchy... constantly trying to convince himself that his culture wasnt barbaric and stealing the value of other life forms iin ways that do not occur anywhere else in nature. that it was just the natural state of life on earth. there is literally no limit to the amount of delusion that well off eurocentrics are capable of utilizing to perpetually excuse their barbarism. they literally made it the basis of all their "science" lmfao

[@daemoncluster]

You do realize there are other religions and that Christianity is not the oldest religion, right?

[@telebiopic]

@@daemoncluster Are you always like this in your personal life? 🙄You do realize, that not proffering examples from other religions, doesn’t mean that I don’t know about them. And, you pointing that out doesn’t makes you a superior authority in comparative religion. Gosh the pretentiousness in the west is on the next level. P.S. - We are talking about western civic society and constitutions, so Christian religious ethics and doctrine are topical in this instance. If it was Chinese, I would have something to comment about Laozi!

[@daemoncluster]

@@telebiopic Western culture involves more than just Christianity. The thought that Christianity is the dominant religion is not accurate, especially considering Judaism, Catholicism, and other religions have their roles as well. I understand what the topic is and I understand what it entails. Going for and asserting factual information shouldn't be a supposition for character assassination.

[@simonhollis5256]

Catholicism is Christianity moron

[@jasonfan54]

As always, these videos have an insane amount of production given how young the channel is - please keep these up!

[@TheMarketExit]

I'll keep it up, thanks for the kind words!

[@TheThinker43]

We live in a mercratic society. I’ve observed it. The problem is you don’t get to pick what parents you were born into. Two parent household etc.. did your dad teach you how to be handy and work on a car or teach you about managing finances and growing wealth, how about to not spend more but invest more?? To lean it in school is one thing but to see it modeled and taught by someone that loves you is a whole nother ball game

[@kkgauthier]

What you don't understand is that the whole system falls apart if there are not enough people remaining on the bottom and few enough on top. If everyone were highly motivated, highly skilled, highly talented, etc., there would still be the same number of high positions and lowly positions. You can only have a ruling class if the mass remain lowly, while smaller and smaller numbers are given higher and higher positions. This is how traditional business is structured, not because of merit, but the basic maintenance of power structure. The quality of the people involved are almost irrelevant. You only see a tiny personal aspect of a massive system you can't hope to understand without taking a step back and viewing it all from a great distance.

[@Credit-card-simp]

Adding on to what the other person said, there’s also the “survivorship bias,” that because it worked for them, it MUST work for everyone else. You often see the success stories in the media, but what about the people who tried and failed? What about the people at the very bottom who TRY SO HARD but only get to maybe middle class vs the people at the top who try LESS and STAY at the rich class? Merit can only get you SO FAR is what the video is saying, because when you have the parents, the connections, the funding, the environment, everything is easier, than when someone at the bottom has NOTHING and keep trying, but cannot get to the top, often trying even harder than the people at the top

[@evilryutaropro]

You can believe that bull all you want but the fact of the matter is the price of oil which dictates damn near every price globally is controlled by one family. When you have a hereditary dynasty with that much power it’s hard to square any belief in meritocracy. Hell look at who gets to be president in the US. It’s not based on competency it’s based on popularity with the lowest common denominators. Does anyone seriously believe the last 5 presidents are the best people America could’ve come up with for their highest public office?

[@AsokaTw-mz3lr]

Same in India too. rich always stays rich, celebrity kids always stay popular.

[@noisepuppet]

It used to be mainly the high status jobs that were traded as favors among the well connected. These days, even low status, low paying salaried positions are already spoken for by the time you apply for them. And whoever's niece or nephew gets the job, the chances are higher than ever that they don't have even the minimum advertised qualifications. And applying for good jobs in my field has gotten 20x harder and more tedious than when I started, with HR systems that require all kinds of redundant, useless info, plus several essay-style answers to open ended questions. Used to be a nice resume and thoughtful cover letter on nice stationery was all you needed. Now you expend ridiculous effort, only to hear "we've hired someone else" so quickly that there could not have been a legit selection process, and you were never in the running. It's infuriating.

[@darklordvadermort]

counterpoint i run a small business and my brother is extremely reliable while random people i hire much less so. wish i had 3 brothers lol.

[@oliveirlegume3725]

I fully agree as a physicist. I could do the physics I love during 3 years only. First my thesis advisor blocked me of any publication during my thesis. Then I got invited at Harvard and in 3 years I published 38 highest level papiers including 8 Phys Rev Letts that is a journal of New concepts only. Then I had to return to Switzerland where my former professor blocked me and I had to reconvert. Hé dis the same to his associate professor who went away.

[@oliveirlegume3725]

Is true my parents were artists with very low income

[@Ygnez]

Wait, isent this evidence that meritocracy does work? In the long-run you won, right?

[@oliveirlegume3725]

@@Ygnez no they forced me to quit. I realized I had to change orientation.

[@Ygnez]

@@oliveirlegume3725 ah okay. But does this mean meritocracy doesnt work, or does this mean that there is a shitty professor at this institution?

[@oliveirlegume3725]

@@Ygnez well did not work for me. That professor was too short I think but still wanted to be above others in his field And I have many friends in Europe who expérienced similar

[@bacool]

This is the stuff I wish I was aware of before college in picking careers even though I went to a top state public university. Career choice and being aware of things like banking and law and consulting even as options frankly matters a lot. Else enjoy being middle class 👍🏼

[@TheMarketExit]

I completely agree. If you grow up in a community where essentially no one has gone to university, how are you supposed to even know that there is such a thing as the consultancy industry?

[@saturationstation1446]

very few people even have the long term consideration capacity to be picking careers before their late 20's. you change quite a lot age 20-30. there is no way to know what your final character will be capable of or interested in. you might become too ill to perform what your studied for. you might not agree with or enjoy it after maturing and learning more about the world and certain humans behaviors. in reality all college amounts to is extending childhood for well off people while the working class folks have to immediately go into making profits and maturing into adults by living within the real world aka the world that the other 99% of the human species who arent well off enough to have their costs of living covered for decades so they can spend all their time and energy doing whatever school things... i've only encountered a handful of people who actually came out of college more intelligent and morally sound than when they went in. turns lots of people into perpetually entitled narcissists because of not having to live in the real world during that vital time of adult character development.

[@SnorriTheLlama]

I believe the saying is you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s why people are way more likely to go into the same profession as their parents than a completely random one. Your parents have a lot of knowledge about their job, but little knowledge or experience of other jobs. Because of the family structure which is an essential part of life, this will always be a significant factor.

[@note8898]

Such a great video on such an important topic! I don't leave comments often but want to leave words of encouragement given how underrated the channel is. Keep up the good work! Greetings from Poland!

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you very much - I do appreciate that you write a comment even though you usually don't do that :) I hope you have a great day!

[@Thinkofwhat]

I think the ruling class in western countries don't have meritocracy but instead aristocracy, nepotism, oligarchy and mob rule. As an individual growing up in the west yes there is meritocracy by doing great in school to university......but once you entered politics meritocracy stopped working but social connections, nepotism, networking and all but definitely Not Meritocracy.

[@hainleysimpson1507]

Same thing in the workplace. Networking and social connections are more important.

[@spnked9516]

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of how societies function to think that any society doesn't have its own ruling elite, or that having ruling elite is a bad thing in the first place. The vast majority of people in a given population don't actually progress the society/civilization they're apart of - they merely maintain it (not that I wish to downplay the importance of this). It's always a small group of people who push social changes or technological innovations (for better and worse). This small group forms the elite ruling class of a society and basically just drags the rest of the population in whichever direction they choose. The reason why European civilizations (generally speaking) surpassed and outright dominated the rest of the world was because they were able to strike a balance between merchant/state/church while facilitating a flow of capable people between them or into them. As a result, social mobility in the West was (and still is) the highest in the world, which aided in preventing any one given group of elite from becoming too entrenched and stagnant. Interestingly enough - the west has become notably less meritorious and more prone to stagnation with the collapse of balance between merchant/state/church groups (with the church falling out of favour completely and merchant and state becoming increasingly incestuous). Compounding the problem is our massive issue with our inverted age demographics (basically too many old people with vested interests and too few young people to rock the boat).

[@Thejenner1]

​@@spnked9516 i think that is very well described, i have the same opinion and it is the restoration og this balance that is needed to have western civilisation move forward positively again...

[@kingcuckoo]

​@@spnked9516 America and the rest of the West differ in this way though. The ruling elite and who progresses society is usually different because progress and innovation hurts the ruling elites. That's why Europe is so against new businesses and has progressive taxes. It is to keep people poor and not hurt the social structure. In America every generation has new people getting rich and messing up the class structure in very prominent ways. Goes to show if you really want a meritocracy create a free market and enforce competition.

[@yingkouzen]

Great analysis; your video should go viral

[@tictoc5443]

IMO life will never be fair..ever

[@amperestream2216]

in this life nothing is perfect don't let that discouraged you from improving

[@tictoc5443]

@@amperestream2216 agreed

[@SickegalAlien]

Life doesn't have to be fair But you can be fair to the people who suffer from it "Life" isn't being tested. You are.

[@mpumelelobeyers957]

Hence why Anti-natalist is morally right path

[@OfAngelsAndAnarchist]

@@SickegalAlienwe are not being tested. Fair is a social construct, not an objective reality. You could just as easily say, “everyone has exactly the same odds of being born into a wealthy family” or spin it any way you want It’s pointless debating about what is and what isn’t fair

[@tw8464]

It's only a lie because we as a society allow it. We need actual inheritance taxes. There are ways to mitigate or negate the nepotocracy and rise the meritocracy we all deserve as legitimate freedom

[@thenathanimal2909]

The government should not be entitled to the wealth someone labored their entire lives to obtain - It belongs to the individual to earn it and they to do with it as they wish. Wealth isn't zero sum in the West.

[@kingcuckoo]

Yes lets take away money from rich people and give it to the fed, because anyone can become a politician or representative of the people. That field is a pure meritocracy right?

[@psikeyhackr6914]

Where is the mandatory accounting in the schools? This guy Adam Smith wrote this book, Wealth of Nations. It has been free in Project Gutenberg since 2001. Anybody can search it for anything they want to see what he said about it. Well he used the word 'education' Eighty Times and wrote “read, write and ACCOUNT” multiple times. And he used “Invisible Hand” so much it can be counted on One Finger. Double entry accounting is 700 years old. Couldn't the US have made accounting mandatory in the schools since Sputnik? Have Capitalist Economists been giving us the finger for decades? It is invisible, I cannot tell.

[@jgdooley2003]

My late father always regretted that schools did not make commerce subjects a part of the core curriculum and place more emphasis on them in the core mathematics curriculum. His opinion was that many pupils left school knowing more about Shakespear and History than knew about accounting, interest rates and terms and conditions pertaining to taxation and government regulations. He was in many ways right about this lack of emphasis in the education system. The interest in the monied and ruling class is for the ordinary people to be ignorant of such subjects and to be terrorised into paying and accepting high rates of interest on loans and rates of tax on economic activity.

[@psikeyhackr6914]

@@jgdooley2003 The Screwing of the Average Man (1974) by David Hapgood

[@Demopans5990]

Only as so much as it helps with college loans. Even then, only where schools are essentially bankrolled.

[@stuartmccormick5372]

“The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it's very brightly colored, and it's very loud, and it's fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, "Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?" And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, "Hey, don't worry; don't be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up! I've got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok … But it doesn't matter, because it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.” ― Bill Hicks

[@TheMarketExit]

Hey, thanks for sharing this quote. It does resonate with me a lot

[@mariamorgan3009]

That's the kind of world I want to live in. Why do they want to destroy us?

[@rudiwiedemann8173]

Together we can do it YOURSELF.

[@klankungen7794]

My mom told me about when she was young and the politicians set the sallary for them self to be equal to the sallary of other state workers such as teachers. Back then she would have the same salary as politicians because they were equally important. Today she earns way less than a politician even though she is a teacher. To me social mobility should not be that you succeed in becoming a movie star. It is that you should have equal oportunity to become a highly educayed individual. I have always critiziced some work getting so much, like movie stars or rock stars.

[@jgdooley2003]

Such sectors as entertainment and sport have countless thousands of specialist technicians and support workers on relatively modest incomes to enable the stars to do their work. The star system was a by-product of similar systems that existed in music and theater for centuries. Movie studios adopted the system to market their films to the general public as a mark of how good a film was. It backfired on the studios in as much that the stars could demand and get high rates of pay and better terms than lessser known contributors to the output. Director and producers also got in on the act and a cult of personality became the norm in the entertainment industry. The other workers in the industry do not get high salaries and often struggle to survive between periods of work. There is very low stability in the sector compared to other more mundane sectors in society.

[@jamesmedina2062]

Aggression and war have dominated cutting edge tech for centuries and when you look at ferocious creatures you can see why that competition starts millions of years back between all animals as well. I bring this up because competition can be a bad thing especially to the planet but it is across the animal kingdom. The worst humans kill the best and docile ones at times. In my country some real "animals" are paid millions to play sports while teachers are not.

[@jusu8961]

I dont understand how these have so few views. These really are amazing quality. Atleast having a big backlog of great videos like this shows people that come to look at your channel from a video that eventually does blow up that youre not a one trick pony.

[@RobertLesac]

Excellent choice of topic and excellent execution! Subscribed and looking forward more such content!

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks and welcome. More to come!

[@kareldolezel1293]

"Our society has a highly limited number of positions of wealth and power." This is called a "zero-sum game," and it's a fundamentally flawed assumption from which to build any theory about society. If somebody studies to become a doctor and then becomes a doctor, that doesn't take anything away from anybody else. Same with engineers, architects, scientists, etc. Higher percentage of these "rich people" simply makes society richer overall. The whole basket of goods and services gets bigger. And the same is also true in reverse when these people leave. It's not like there is more money to go around when you don't have to pay them. This is called "human capital flight" or "brain drain," and nobody who's left is richer for it.

[@srt11111]

probably the most underrated channel in YT... I wish there was a way to be an early investor for channels like these; just like in investment market.. production quality and depth are at level of "fineaus" or "cold fusion" level (if not better). superb work.

[@TheMarketExit]

That's extremely kind of you and inspires me to keep making videos. Thank you for taking the time to write such a kind comment!

[@bjk837]

A man must come to himself and decide…that is all that is required to achieve upward mobility. The rest is simply a matter of time

[@kevinjohn8365]

Wow, production levels are off the chart . Keep up the great work.

[@TheMarketExit]

I will indeed keep it up, thank you for the kind comment!

[@gianfrancobardiaparicio721]

Great video, and awesome production quality! Very interesting about the paradox of inequality, I was born and raised in Guatemala, then was lucky enough to save money and be able to study in France and now in Denmark, so basically I have moved in societies from the most unequal end to the most equal end of the spectrum. Anecdotally, I think a lot of the people I have met that believe in the meritocratic values of their societies is that it's most likely a psychological defense mechanism, because people rarely like to think of themselves in a negative way (i.e. what if my comfy situation comes down to >80% luck and I'm not that special ?), so they reinforce the belief that they deserve their outcome in almost a fanatical way.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks! I believe that you are completely right. Your background and story make me really curious to know more about how it is to have lived in countries on such polar opposite sides of the spectrum. If you want to share a bit more about your experiences, I'd love to hear it!

[@gianfrancobardiaparicio721]

@@TheMarketExit hey yeah of course I can try to answer ^^

[@saturationstation1446]

its a defense mechanism because if you are honest about the situation, it means every eurocentric country is breaking geneva convention rules and committing mass genocide against everyone outside of europe. dont want to have to realize that mass murder through labor induced starvation has taken the lives of 99% of the human species in the past several hunderd years. because then you have to admit to being a psychotic monster for tolerating and enabling it... but if you think dying from exhaustion due to having to do physical labor for little to no compensation is anything besides murder, you've already identified that you dont have the mental or moral capaciity to humanize real human beings and only consider the psychotic self obsessed "i raised and taught myself everything and exist in a vacuum so im self made and owe nothing to no one" as acceptable forms of human beings...

[@epursimuove1633]

Inheritance is a form of meritocracy over time. Thank your ancestors for their hard work and the accumulate success. Equality is not the goal. Prosperity is.

[@TheJohnnyCalifornia]

I remember a discussion in class about whether Genghis Khan had a productive or detrimental historical legacy, and in the "pros" list was the idea that he replaced hereditary aristocracies with meritocracies. However, others argued that that was a meaningless distinction as his own dynastic rule remained over all of them, so when the definition of "merit" is determined against one's value or lack of value to an absolute tyrant, then a meritocracy is not necessarily better or worse than an hereditary oligarchy. It the political or economic context that defines the meritocracy. The Mafia is a meritocracy by their own definitions. If one is rising in the ranks, then they are making money for the people above them - that is their merit and if that is the only criteria, then they are a meritocracy. Honestly, it is the same primary criteria for public companies, trusts and corporations.

[@homergee3381]

We live in a time where a single example can be sold as the norm and the norm can be sold as no more than a single example.

[@patrickzebrauskas1218]

Religion was never the justification for inequality…

[@thedeadgypsy]

Have you studied history at all?

[@rogerbartlet5720]

All a government can do is treat people the same under the the law. That's it.

[@spacechemsol4288]

A phrase poor people are (deservedly)poor because they are not as talented is very interesting, when one looks at the etymology of talent, which in greek was related to wealth/money and not skill. So it becomes somewhat of a tautology, poor people are (deservedly) poor because they have no money ...

[@OneLine122]

I noticed the phenomenon on a psychological point of view. What happens is that in unequal places, those at the top will pay some people to promote the meritocracy and they themselves will claim to be self-made. This way people are simply shamed into not complaining about their relative poverty and accept whatever scraps are left. Not only that but the message is to not complain, but promote, then maybe someone will notice you and if your advertising works, you might just make it. Well, you see that a lot on youtube. Most creators promote meritocracy, because they are beggars and the rich patrons certainly won't help people that work against them or are a threat. It's like being knighted in the older days except the modern knight fights the peasants instead of foreign knights.

[@saturationstation1446]

you cant be self made and not eternally exist in an isolated vacuum.... there is a severe mental illness among well off eurocentrics that prevents them from having the mental capacity to admit other human beings are real. because if they do they have to acknowledge the mass murder thats happening in their name... and they know if the circumstances were switched they would be becoming terrorists to defend what they care about before they'd get on their knees and enthusiastically get murdered with labor induced starvation...

[@johnkeane1419]

In the UK and US, 'successful' people go to enormous lengths to pretend they're the boy or girl next door. Until the Internet, they could usually get away with it.

[@crypticTV]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="815">13:35</a> Stories to uphold the illusion - The miraculous ones <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="930">15:30</a> Dual Paradox

[@santiagosolis2321]

Great video, thank you for sharing your work and wish you the best

[@SailingIdefix]

Excellent! Very well presented.

[@Krishicher]

This presentation is artistically superior. For a very long time, USA (male) children were told, “You may just grow up to be president one day.” Famously in 2010, a 12 year old student found that 42 out of 43 presidents were related to King John of England, who signed the Magna Carta in 1215. Although there are tenuous connections, some societal benefits for nepo babies appear likely.

[@TheMarketExit]

Hey, that's really interesting! I hadn't heard that. Have to read up on that, really interesting.

[@stretch1681]

Will the book be available in the US in English?

[@mathewp3416]

Technocracy is the real problem. There is no churn in the top 500 or so companies in the world in every sector for the past 70 or so years. True Laissez-Faire is obviously unattainable as communism or socialism. But the silver lining is that its all gonna crash 100%. I give it 2 more decades max. The global economy is already done, and is kept on life support. Infinite growth is impossible but people in China, US and elsewhere cant get that through their head. QE, on-shoring manufacturing are all just stop gaps. The debt you have is not gonna go away. Nor is the inequality going away. Multipolarity just gives local big fish more room to create oligopolies. The future of most countrues is turning into Russia clones.

[@thenathanimal2909]

Inequality will never go away, people are Inequal in intelligence, effort, skill, and ability.

[@mathewp3416]

@@thenathanimal2909 True. But if you look at the world today you would think the effort is to maximize inequality. PS: If what you said is the case, then why sell the myth of meritocracy. Just say "inequality is inevitable", as you rightly said, upfront.

[@mathewp3416]

@@thenathanimal2909 Do you believe we are doing a decent job of mitigating inequalities?

[@matthennessey6223]

Fantastic journalism in this video and your animations continue to amaze me! Keep up the good work!!

[@DamienZachariah]

Where and when can we get a English version? Excellent work 👍.

[@Llkc60]

there used to be 90%+ inheritance tax in the United States. if that taxation is enforced, then the current system can operate as a meritocracy and produce the desired results. (of course several other social policies are also needed to be enforced, such as excellent and equal schooling, sufficient state funded higher education institutions, anti-monopoly laws, laws against the current legalized system of corruption with lobbying, etc...)

[@MegaMONI45]

These videos and this channel is awesome! Thank you for your work, and good luck keeping it up :)

[@lazylad1726]

Superb analysis and research. I have no doubts about the Gatsby curve, hi from Bombay, India.

[@anamikagotinaiims]

sweden,denmark and norway offer great education,healthcare for free

[@jgdooley2003]

Not for free in as much as there is high rates of tax and a high level of detection and enforcement of rules governing taxation and the reporting of individuals income, all of it, compared to other countries.

[@isaacdunford6394]

Very high quality video! I am quite surprised by how few subscribers you have. You earned one more today. I would be interested on a study about meritocracy and how it shows up in fields with a workforce shortage vs more traditional workforce. I honestly fell into a field with not enough bright minds and have been able to land a quality Engineer position with no secondary education. I am curious how much of that is luck vs field. This is after going from a traditional bread and sweets baker to an areospace Quality Engineer. I do note that i started at an entry-level position in the engineered composites field.

[@GS-jk5ij]

What an underrated channel! Learning so much from your videos

[@TimiEweoba]

This is beautifully done. Top notch edit

[@eox555]

Catholic religion never has justified inequality or kings of europe. They may have used to their advantage. It's not the same.

[@ajmosutra7667]

Yes, it HAS.

[@schurlbirkenbach1995]

40 % of success is hard work, 30 %is knowing the right people, 30 % is getting the right opportunity and also recognizing it. And never forget, "in no society everybody can have success". Only a minority can become rich. At least somebody has to do the shitty work.

[@thescholarsjourney661]

This video is very well done but PLEASE turn down the volume of the sound effects, they actively hurt my ears and make it hard to hear what's being said

[@philhudson3619]

We wanted to scientifically analyse how social mobility works... So we talked to this one journalist

[@ksherinian]

I grew up broke as broke can be in Matteson, IL. Went to college and became an engineer. I worked as an engineer for 10 years, and then went to law school. Became an attorney and have done fantastic. I know 50+ with stories like mine, and many of them have done far better than I. This video simply does not ring true.

[@schurlbirkenbach1995]

You changed a honorable profession to that of a crook. But you were right. It's not your fault.

[@phineasandferbrocks4]

you might think you're doing great but relative to the absurd magnitude and hoarding of wealth at the top you might as well be where you started. and boy 50+ stories compared to the actual economic reality of modern day america... dont think your argument would hold up in court

[@ksherinian]

@@schurlbirkenbach1995 I am sorry you believe that. I assure you that you can do well as an attorney without being a crook.

[@ksherinian]

@@phineasandferbrocks4 You are correct - I am not even close to the wealth level of Elon Musk or Bill Gates if that is what you are asking about, but that was not my point. The point is that there is strong social mobility. I literally just followed the script and went from being flat broke to being fairly well off. I believe that my children will end up doing better than I have, as they will 1) not have to waste time struggling to survive, and 2) will have a lot better advice than I received. Again though, I suspect they will not end up as rich as Elon Musk. That is not the point though, is it? If the point is social mobility, it is still alive and well, at least in the USA.

[@bazingacurta2567]

Incredibly imporrant video. Thank you so much!

[@dingusdingus2152]

Music too loud, video unwatchable.

[@WeKnowIslam94]

That's why we are doing injustice to bring our children to this world... I'm married but I don't bring any child to this fake world... I don't wanted him to repent that why he/she born...

[@michaeljohndennis2231]

I realised the harsh truth of this a few years ago when I wanted to change careers from the supermarkets where I’d been for 20 years at that point, to become a flight attendant (airline cabin crew) and I never got a single interview from any airline anywhere around the world, losing a lot of money in the process in useless courses to hone my application skills - besides, everyone else that I turned to for help not only openly ridiculed my efforts to change careers, they also actively prevented my efforts from behind the scenes in various ways to do so, which they had also told me beforehand that they would do - it’s an extension of the social class system which leftists, socialists, Marxists, corporatists and communists are fully invested in, in order to protect their own position of power and privilege with their globalist overlords and it’s also one way in which they deceive and betray the lower classes, where no matter how hard or smart you work, you are never getting above that glass ceiling, on merit or otherwise

[@MarcoBonechi]

Merit within the same class yes. Jumping class is whats limited. Available but limited

[@muerpa]

The idea that we are all created equal is Christian and inequality is based on human nature and the law of distribution in stable systems. Equity is only achieved through work to maintain social entropy at bay, distribution of wealth is part of this work, but the true question is how to justly redistribute wealth. Also, human psychology can’t distinguish between probability of luck and personal struggle to optimize our opportunities because of our experience of self determination. All metaphysical or political narratives will be used to stabilize and maintain the status quo. Metaphysical realities or political narratives are not bad, what is harder is to introduce in to the narrative or metaphysics a mechanism of redistribution that seems to the intuitions of all to be just and that actually last the test of time (that will not be gamed or suffer of the “tragedy of the commons “)

[@pawelhyzopski6456]

Massive note tho. Meritocracy and "belief" are two different things. What you described here is nothing else but capitalism. Rule of money. As far as i know we never had real meritocracy. And to further that, we need to divide onto social and economic model. One is to govern (democracy or meritocracy), the other is to organize economy (capitalism, socialism, oligarchy) The closest we have is oligarchy model with corrupted democracy with bits of socialism and capitalism.

[@wilsonlin1711]

The pictures and typography you used are very nice. That's quite a graphic design skill you have if your profession is a lawyer. Impressive.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks! :) I am quite passionate about graphic design

[@rollingmancave4547]

So you were born into privilege and got a college degree while someone else just gets a lower wage job straight out of high school. Now that four years of effort entitles you to make vastly more money every year for the rest of your life? That is some IMMORAL BS!

[@thenathanimal2909]

Being born with privilege is immoral? So someone born stronger, smarter, and more beautiful than you and will benefit in life because of it is immoral by nature? Or being given money for college by your parents who worked hard and saved to give it you is immoral?

[@rollingmancave4547]

@@thenathanimal2909 Not exactly; it's what you do with that privilege. So, someone with an intellectual disadvantage should be paid less even when they work just as hard as anyone else? If one thinks deeper one can realize that many if not most people including extremely gifted people would and do do things for reasons other than "money".

[@thenathanimal2909]

@rollingmancave4547 someone with an intellectual disability should be paid the same as someone doing the same quality of work as them. You should be paid by the quality of your work, not how hard you worked to do it. Does someone who can build a machine easily in 3 days deserve less than someone who works very hard to make the same machine in 2 weeks? Does someone who can easily paint a masterpiece in a week deserve less than someone who works much harder but can produce it in 5 weeks? Ultimately you are paid what someone thinks your work is worth, the government has no place forcing individuals to pay what the government thinks their labor is worth. Individuals should be free to make their own choices about how much their labor is worth and how much they're willing to pay for labor. It's my labor, I'll sell it for what I want. If no one is willing to pay you what you want for your labor, your labor isn't worth as much as you think it is. Sure plenty of people do things that don't make them money - but the overwhelming majority of people do things for money because money is a means to do more things they enjoy.

[@rollingmancave4547]

@@thenathanimal2909 I would argue that people work for money because they have to under capitalism not because they would not prefer to do it for other reasons. If we all valued each other and each other's contributions "equally" and there was no scarcity (we are almost there); I think most people would be fine with economic equality. Look, we are admittedly a pretty petty and selfish species, but I believe we are evolving past the stage of cruelty and barbarity- if we choose to do so- and we can choose to do so. We can transcend past what has characterized life on Earth since the dawn of predation in the Cambrian.

[@BlueSquareInWhiteCircle]

The Enlightenment idea that "all men are created equal" originated from several intellectual currents, notably John Locke’s natural rights philosophy, which argued that all individuals possess inherent rights to "life, liberty, and property" by nature or divine will. This was paralleled by Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s social contract theory, stating "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains," emphasizing political equality as a natural state. Influences also stemmed from Stoic philosophy on universal human rationality, the Christian notion that all humans are made in God’s image, and the shift towards capitalist individualism, as advocated by thinkers like Adam Smith. Together, these sources fed the growing idea that equality is a fundamental condition of humanity, cemented in texts like the U.S. Declaration of Independence (1776) and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (1789).

[@GAVRANOX]

Just found your channel, great work!

[@Thefamilychannel723]

You are making a case for reparations for slavery and colonialism.

[@juniorrokudevelopertutoria3734]

The problem is that iq has big hereditary component. And even if system was 100 percent based on aptitude and hard work, Everything would still be hereditary to certain point.

[@johnkeane1419]

People like Beckham or Cyrus are hardly high IQ.

[@patrickferguson7603]

IQ is important, but so is EQ. The defining thing I see among the poor is that they lack the ability to control their emotions. If you are very wealthy, the top.1%, that wealth makes income on its own so its easy for following generations to maintain that wealth unless they do something stupid.

[@jamesmedina2062]

Wow very good point!!! This is pure logic at work. Good job!👍

[@victormgv]

That’s Nazi propaganda

[@rufusevison2913]

My apologies, as one of the miraculous I am part of the problem. The social mobility in the UK has gone down as I see the difficulties of someone from the level of poverty I had.

[@mrlolmw2]

The video editing is so good the content seems more intelligent than it is.

[@patrickkaiser6930]

It's not only about society but also about parenting and genetics. The quantity and quality of time parents spend with their offsprings. Going to nature, reading, proper speaking, help with schoolwork all will effect the life of the child and therefore their future social and economic status. Also if the parents are of low intelligence the children are most likely to have low intelligence with bad effects throug things like smoking and alcohol during pregnancy, bad nutrition and air quality in inner cities adding to the effect. The video is not addressing any of these factors that are individual factors, not societal ones.

[@djz.p.e.6260]

All creatures are created equally unique ¡! Condemning life to one form of excellence is condemning life to self extinction !📖🧙🏽‍♂️☕️

[@scottgray636]

In my experience the greatest cause of someone failing has been that own person's fault for various reasons and blaming someone else is an excuse. In fact look up how many generations a family stays rich.

[@schurlbirkenbach1995]

I once read a scientifical research of a medieval village, (Montaillou, the researcher was a Mr. Ladurie) where the most influential persons around 1300 had the same family names like those in 1980. Beside, everybody, who knows Great Britain, knows, that Norman names dating back to the conquest of 1066 are overrepresented among British elites. And my personal experience is, you can move from lower class to middle class with discipline and work, but you need a lot of luck to move from middle class to real success, that means to upper class.

[@215Gallagher]

Sorry squire I can't hear you properly over the overly loud muzak.

[@CleverSmart123]

This is great and insightful content. Thank you for creating it.

[@liisaeskelinen1909]

Very educational, thanks !

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you very much! Any suggestions for future topics?

[@REFZ50]

Excelente. Pendiente de nuevos capítulos. Saludos desde Colombia!!

[@aggiew6359]

This is some excellent work. Please keep going. Unfortunately, I don't get recommended your videos even though I'm subscribed. From time to time I remember to search your channel and I'm never disappointed by your new videos. You may be interested in knowing that I'm from Kenya. I first came across your channel through the private equity video. I have not stopped thinking about it as I am noticing more and more companies in Kenya being acquired by private equity firms. One such supermarket chain introduced 24/7 service after being acquired. I was very irritated by this because they are not offering any essential services and it's the workers who could no longer have a good work life balance are suffering the most.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you so much for your comment. This is so cool, you're the second commenter on this video from Kenya. I love it. I'm really interested in hearing more about the super market chain and PE-acquisitions in Kenya that you mention. Do you know if there are any english language news sources about this? I'd be really grateful if you could explain this a bit further to me in an email, I'd love to hear more!

[@DjJilber]

Really cool video! I truly believe we do live in a meritocratic-dominant society. One thing you completely leave out about nepotism: sure, the parents’ connections and knowledge of how to navigate specific industries are a resource to the children but you are TOTALLY forgetting training For example: Accomplished, successful, talented musicians who raise their children in music are going to give their children a huge skill advantage (e.g. Billie Eilish, Finneas). Through coaching, their experience and skill set produces an environment that creates highly skilled individuals that WILL succeed through merit. I don’t think you can under exaggerate the advantage that a child that is coached in singing, boxing, soccer, etc from 5 years old has over people who pick it up later in life! It’s night and day.

[@Demopans5990]

Or a simple example. NYC. The city operates several schools of quality surpassing that of privates, and these require a test to get in. Naturally, an industry of test prep developed. Guess which students are entering the good schools? Students who either took summer prep classes, and the occasional few students whose parents were teachers and whatnot. The actual wunderkind from poverty? What you don't hear is how hard their parents worked their asses off. I'm an example of that. My parents developed grey hairs by their 40s just so I could enter a good college.

[@TheMarketExit]

@DjJilber Hey thanks! I agree with you. Two points to add is that the access to good coaches is correlated with the wealth/status environment you grow up in. Another is that there is some research that it's very possible, even better sometimes, to use childhood/adolescence to explore and then specialize later in life. Vincent van Gogh being one example of a person who found his craft late in life. There are many other examples. I can really recommend David Epsteins book Range if you're curious about that. It made me reconsider a lot of things. Cheers!

[@50gens]

"the more unequal a country is the higher the persistence levels are" persistance doesn't mean that meritocracy is lacking. Rich parents have rich kids because they can teach their kids the know how to obtain the same merit. And the people in the bottom doom their children. It's their fault that they ensure continuing suffering. As long as there isn't institutionalised discrimination or nepotism due to corruption, people get to their positions based on merit. The paradox of inequality, therefore, doesn't exist. If people believe in meritocracy, they tolerate more inequalities, but these two aren't correlated to how much meritocracy there is, and how much of that inequality is deserved. And the surname thing about english collages was a very bad faith argument. Social classes haven't been switched since the norman invasions, england is like the most stable country ever. Of course they are going to reach equal levels asymptotically. This doesn't say anything about the rate at which that happens. You could keep measuring that signal forever if the population was large enough.

[@leea3531]

This guys videos are good quality . He needs more likes and comments . Help him because he deserves it

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you :)

[@thomascromwell6840]

Hope you make a video on the tyranny of merit by Singer

[@doeixo]

Another paradox is people thinking the state is a way to solve inequality. Free societies (those with less state intervention freer markets) present more social mobility, both in the past and in the present. Places like the italian rennaisance cities or the hanseatic league, commercial open societies unsurprisingly present more socioeconomic mobility than those where a state controls everything. The state is and has always been those norman conquerors and their descendants inheriting positions and creating laws to benefit themselves and preserve power.

[@A-Milkdromeda-Laniakea-Hominid]

Who knew Floki was a nepo baby.

[@MarkandSandieInMotion]

Wonderfully done and so informative. And your graphics are impressive:)

[@TheMarketExit]

Thank you very much!

[@bent1208]

The other angle missing in this conversation is the book life at the bottom. There’s value added or lost to upper and lower classes, some produce culture and others produce value. I’m not saying one is good over the other. Producing goods isn’t enough, there has to be middle men and people charismatic enough to get 1000 other people to work towards a common goal. It’s more complicated than comparing the haves and the haves not.

[@lautarofigueroa]

Very interesting. I think that the music was a bit louder than your voice and made it a bit difficult to concentrate. But the content is top!

[@puma7171]

The idea of equality in Western Culture stems from the Christian religion, not the enlightenment. The Church did not put Aristocrats on top of ordinary people, it just went along with dominant (and unavoidable) power structures

[@Stefano-o5f]

The meritocracy exist in times of war.. if it wasn't for french revolution then there would be no Napoleon.

[@ElijahSmith]

Nepotism is bad, but not all human connections and networking is nepotism.

[@SattickDas2001]

Fact is : All people may be born equal ( except people born with disabilities, they are disadvantaged at birth), but everyone doesn't remain equal by the time they are grown enough to have their own autonomy and enterprise.

[@Valuvsn]

The word fairness has caused more delusion than any other word in the English language. This video is proof. Why would a sensible person ever expect it to be equal.

[@qwertyuuytrewq825]

editing of video is very good and professional

[@dcissignedon]

It's equality before the law that is the goal.

[@TheMarketExit]

Thanks for you comment. Even if your comment would be true though, we don't have anything near equality before the law. A whole field of sociolegal studes and criminology have shown that your social class and race impacts how the legal system will treat you. I'll probably look into that in a future video. Cheers!

[@dcissignedon]

Don't forget, that is the GOAL, not necessarily the reality. That's what we should be aiming for, and that's where our efforts should be focused.. @@TheMarketExit

[@TheMarketExit]

That's true, I do appreciate that sentiment. Thanks!

[@richardwills-woodward]

Do they? Even if what you state is true, you will never erase it other than across a sea of blood and you will never arrive at your destination. There are rules. If you look like a cow with a ring through your nose, don't speak properly, have an attitude problem, of course you will not succeed. That has a lot to do with your background, but schools and society need to stop lying to the less accomplished in these social areas and encourage them to emulate what makes you successful in a specific industry. It is not ok to be you. There are rules in all areas of life and for good reason. Equip yourself with the skills that get you hired and do not expect society to bring itself down to meet your lesser standard. @@TheMarketExit

[@Suzanne291]

Anyone here in America has a chance to achieve anything. I see it every day. No hadnout is harder but it happens all the time.

[@johney3734]

Hard cfore conten delivered in dry Swedish doom speak..... terrifying

[@JaeohnEspheras]

Meritocracy has always been influenced by networking skills. I am certain everyone does it without even realizing it. It’s human nature. For instance, if you need someone to mow your lawn, you're likely to call the neighborhood kid who does it for others, especially if he’s your own son. Let’s be honest: did you choose him based on skill or convenience? If the cost were similar, you might even pay your son more as encouragement. This raises the question: is this meritocracy or nepotism? While ability plays a role in meritocratic systems, networking often trumps skill when it comes to real-world decisions. Familiarity and personal relationships can overshadow merit, revealing that meritocracy may be more about who you know than what you can do. Like it or not, that is our nature.