Meritocracy Essay

In The Merits of Meritocracy, by David Brooks, Brooks discusses the lives of middle-class children growing up in America. He opens up with an anecdote about his daughter, to lead into one of his main points: middle-class children have busy and protected childhood, filled with many opportunities supervised by adults (193). For instance, his daughter has four different helmets for biking, pogo sticking, skateboarding, and playing baseball (193). She is a prime example of how the middle-class is presented with opportunities and busy lives; because of this, Brooks claims the general middle-class parent fears their child is too spoiled by abundance, and will never have to commit to one thing (194). Another large fear Brooks states they have, is

Meritocracy, the system where each person's progression is due to their achievements, is seen constantly throughout society and it is suggested to be in Australian higher education. This essay will argue that rural students who attend or plan on attending university challenge this suggestion of meritocracy in Australian universities, as rural students are unequal compared to urban students. This essay will show that universities are not based on merit alone, as rural students are disadvantaged in areas such as distance, family & community values, course availability and university availability.

America has a lengthy history on how it became the powerful country it is today, and although its history can be interrupted in many ways (depending who you ask) one thing that is for certain is that wealth has yet to be distributed equally amongst minorities. According to the article “Income inequality matter; Extreme gap in wealth makes society unstable.” Philip Meyer claims that the wealth gap between whites and minorities has existed since Ronald Reagans’ term of presidency (A9). Although Ronald Reagans’ term ended many years ago the mistakes that caused this imbalance of wealth (and its aftermath) while he was in office remains almost if not exactly the same as when the problem initially began (Meyer A9). The wealth gap continues to target minorities and is affecting our communities at an alarming rate, however, many attempts have been made to reduce its existence but the factors of income inequality, unemployment rates and discrimination before and after our recent 2007 recession prevents our country from eliminating such a toxic problem.

The myth of meritocracy has been proven true in multiply sources. Studies have hypothesized this before when relating to upward mobility. Upward mobility in the last forty years has been more and more unlikely for years and years now. Factors like race, socioeconomic status, household makeup, and economic conditions of this country play a big role. I will go more indepth about this study by showing more facts in the following paragraphs.

In many academic sources, due attention is paid to the study of historical facts about wealth distribution. I think it is necessary to consider these facts in order to assess the current situation in the country. As mentioned by Dalton Conley, “black people seem to have gained little that would encourage them to maintain a realistic belief in the American Dream” (262). The growth of wealth gap should be considered while making conclusions on the link between the American Dream and racial issues. I agree with the fact that African Americans and whites have different opportunities. There are many examples which show the acts of racial discrimination in employment. I believe that the psychological effects of the history of slavery contribute

This racial wealth gap has been prevalent for decades and it is deeply affected by federal policies that have given Whites the privilege to gain assets for a longer period than any other race. Practices such as White flight , the G.I bill , and redlining , have all discouraged African Americans from owning homes , while allowing Whites to be able to increase the value of their home. As a result of years of affirmative actionWhites tend to have more inheritance , which they can then use as down payments on property to build their assets. One of the main things that could help to reduce the racial wealth gap, is to equalize the amount of minorities and Whites that own homes. This would not only increase Black wealth , but it would provide inheritance for the next generations. Therefore the gap would begin to decrease overtime, as more generations would have a better foundation to start on. However there have been governmental policies to make it harder for Blacks to buy and keep a house, and if they did buy one it reduces the value of their house. The most recent practice that has been used to discriminate against black homeownership is subprime lending , in which the bank has given black families inflated interest rates on loans

Racially inequality is largely related to wealth as Shapiro argues “The lack of wealth among African Americans is a major explanation why racial inequality persist today” (Shapiro,2006). What I found interesting in class is when you explained that this is not a result of racial differences in achievement. Rather this results from institutional factors such as government policies. Due to pre-existing constructs in our society Blacks’ mortgage applications have a 60% higher chance of being rejected to whites with identical credit scores(Lecture). On top of that residential segregation takes place and most neighborhoods consists of a majority of one race. Because of this White property appreciate more while Blacks’ property appreciates at a much slower rate or can even lose value(Lecture). Overall these inequalities in wealth and homeownership are a direct result of institutional discrimination against Blacks. In order for equality these institutional discriminations need to be taken out of our society for it to function

Inequality has been always a problem for the United States, racial inequality, gender inequality and of course income inequality. Meanwhile racial and gender inequality didn’t concern the majority people in the country and they didn’t have rights at the beginning, income injustice concerned, 99% of people who has rights in the government. The problem is not only that the minority owns the majority of money, but also that people who work at the same jobs have different salaries. I have two friends, one works at store, Costco and another at Shoprite. Person who works as a cashier at Costco has $12 per hour, and the one who works as a cashier at Shoprite makes $8.70 per hour. This shows that two people who spend the same amount of time, energy

Many believe that the United States doesn’t have a racial divide, but there are facts and statistics that prove otherwise. For instance, there is the divide within education that states that African Americans are twice as likely as whites not to finish high school. Not only in academics are they divided but also in disciplinary within the school in where it shows that black students are suspended or expelled roughly three times more than their white companions. Statistics show that 21% of white students end up completing a college degree, while only 13% of blacks complete the same goal, leading to the next issue being wealth. Whereas even if they both obtain the same college degree the payoff is nowhere near the same. For example a white family

Mrs. Wente uses hyper-meritocracy to define what she believes our society is. She regards our society’s wealth to be distributed by whomever works hardest. “In the new hyper-meritocracy, people with temperate habits and Victorian values will do better than ever – and people who can’t resist temptation will do even worse.” (Wente How to Succeed in the 21st Century) In this quote she describes our society as merit based and not based on whichever social class you were born in.

In the United States wealth disparity, has affected different race of people, for example blacks, leading experts the field of sociology, in their opinion that black people are at a disadvantage in comparison to other ethical groups such as whites in wealth distribution, there are several social issues that creates this disparity. In the article written by Kellen Stanfield, (2011), p. 350 Persistent Racial Disparity, Wealth and the Economic Surplus as the for Reparations in the United States, states that “Even after the exclusion from wealth accumulation due to slavery ended, “segregation blocked access to education, decent jobs, and livable wages among the grandparents and parents of blacks born before the late 1960s, effectively preventing

Prior to illustrating how America is not simply a “meritocratic” society, one must understand what the meaning of meritocracy is. According to Dictionary.com, a meritocratic society grants all residents equal opportunities for advancements in life. Thus, those who demonstrate great ability and effort are

For those that are in minorities have a harder chance of being able to surpass their social class. Although anyone has the ability to climb the social ladder it has become extremely dependent on the circumstances that you have no control over such as what family or race you are born in. If you are born african american or hispanic your chances to climb the social ladder are reduced. Coincidentally, your chances are reduced further if your parents are unmarried or seperated which a high percentage of hispanic and african american parents are. While the poor continue to be forced to have increased chances of remaining poor the middle class has the ability to still enter the high class meaning that their american dream still exists. The rich have it the easiest though, the majority of the rich did not earn their money through their own hard work but inherited all their wealth. They make it harder for anyone to be able to reach their high status by using their power and money over any opposition and are the biggest threat to our American

After a student has achieved in the meritocracy of public school, there is no direct track into college. High school is the highest level of compulsory schooling and anything beyond that is optional and left for the student to navigate. The college application process is a complicated and involved one. Students must often collect recommendation letters, craft well-written essays, and complete financial aid or scholarship applications among many other requirements (Gaztambide-Fernández 2009: 205). As Gaztambide-Fernández writes, the application process is elaborate and students often need help from college counseling offices in high schools or from parents (2009: 204-205). For example, the student’s written about in The Best of the Best were

As my United States History teacher used to say, "The rich get richer and the poor get screwed." While taking the course in high school, I did not exactly know what this meant. Now that I have more background knowledge on how class, race, and gender greatly impact an individual 's quality of life, I see that this statement holds true, unfortuntely. What my teacher meant was that those who have opportunities continue towards the path of success, and those who do not have the same priveleges are being robbed of the same opportunities. All too often, people are judged, discriminated against, and simply held back because of factors such as their race or ethincity.