I am really enjoying the Meritocracy Trap by Daniel Markowitz. Its descriptions of how the lives of the wealthy are different than non-wealthy, how they reproduce their success, and how the blind faith in meritocracy hurts us all are compelling.

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Scholars exploring racial and gender differences speak of how differences are systemic - a mixture of policies, everyday behaviors, and attitudes that reproduce differences between populations.

They also speak of...

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...ideologies that are the "glue" that justify these inequalities.

I see the same thing with meritocracy.

There is a system in place that means if you are wealthy in 2020 you can reproduce that wealth by investing in your children.

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We see this as "fair" because they worked for it. As a result, this system is not critiqued.

I'm sure future attempts to address it will be met with charges of socialism or some other nonsense.

Can't wait to get to the end of it to see what Markowitz's solutions are.

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