Meritocracy In Australia Essay

When people say they “want justice”, what do they want? How can we achieve justice as a community?

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

Western women have traditionally been perceived as the inferior sex, or the domestic partner, subjected wholly to the private sphere, and stripped of legal rights and standing. Meanwhile, men are depicted as the breadwinner, the strong, masculine and dominant partner, who belongs primarily to the public sphere. These historic gender norms have been deeply imbedded within Australia’s social foundation, and although society has gradually shifted away from these roles, evidence suggests that this gender inequality still riddles the modern day workplace. Liberal feminist groups have embraced this issue, and have classified it as being a true barrier to achieving the ultimate gender equality goal. Consequently, these liberal feminists along

Social inequality is a problematic phenomenon that occurs all around the world and affects both the developed and developing nations. It is defined as “the unequal distribution of social, political and economic resources within a social collective” (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 205). Inequality is closely connected with social stratification, a system of social hierarchy that positions individuals and groups into categories according to social variables such as class or ethnicity (van Krieken et al. 2013, p. 485). This stratification has a significant impact on the opportunity that an individual may have to move up the hierarchy of inequality (Gill 2017a).

Over the last two decades the Australian population has faced a number of economic instabilities that has seen the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ increase. To determine who the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ are an in-depth investigation will be performed examining the circumstances under which the gap can be manipulated. The economic wellbeing of individuals is largely determined by their command over economic resources (ABS, 2009). The wellbeing of individuals who are classified as ‘haves’ are usually people who are asset rich, contain bonds, shares and are fairly affluent. The wellbeing of individuals who are classified as ‘have nots’ are usually the working poor, who have little assets and little investments i.e. bonds. These

To Hayes the failure of meritocracy comes from its focus on equality of opportunity over equality of outcome. Thus, as inequality escalated, the meritocracy ended up becoming so entrenched and isolated that it is no longer even much of a meritocracy. Hayes cites his elite NYC alma mater, Hunter College High School, as a prime example. The only admissions requirement is passing its entrance exam, yet the percentage students from minority and low income backgrounds has been steadily declining due to the expensive test taking prep courses that more affluent students can afford. Meanwhile the increasingly wealthy “meritocratic elites” isolate themselves from the rest of us in the 99% by living and traveling privately – in gated communities, exclusive clubs and resorts, corporate jets, etc., blaming the masses rather than themselves for societal woes.

In the essay The Merits of Meritocracy David Brooks mentions, that meritocracy is the social system that gives opportunities and advantages to people on the basis of their abilities rather then reasons such as wealth or seniority. He believes that people more or less deserve what they get, those people who do not work hard or build up their skills should not expect rewards. He also argued that in school and in the workplace Americans need to focus on achievement, dedication, continuous improvement, and hard work. People have to succeed through there performance: those who work hard should win praise those who don’t work hard will suffer the consequences. A persons country of origin should be no excuse at all.

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.

The racial income gap illustrates that the United States is not a meritocracy society. A meritocracy society would be an area where everyone no matter what color or background they are from have the chance to succeed based on their own ability. Although it is certainly appealing and a magnificent way of viewing our society, in reality no society can ever truly function as a meritocracy and therefore having no control at birth and the environment where we grow up, and who we get surrounded with puts major races, especially in the United States in disadvantage, a country that is far from meritocratic compared to other nation.

The higher consideration of out-of-state applicants directly conflicts with most universities’ vision for a “diverse student body”, but that is another problem in itself. Education policy professor Ozan Jacquette’s argument -”out-of-state students are more affluent, more likely to have parents with a college degree, and are disproportionately white...out-of-state students correlated a decline in Black, Latino and low-income students” (Jacquette) - points out the shift in demographics that consequents to a noticeable shift in the types of students admitted. A California student Paolina Cuevas expresses her disbelief in her home state’s admission processes: “I will be the first in my family to go to college, and I prepared for college applications... I believe that our state institutions should be able to serve those of us who have grown up here” (Cuevas). Although Cuevas and I share the same bias towards the system, she thoroughly supports Jacquette’s claim that less privileged students are losing educational opportunity due to the growing figure of accepted out-of-state

Australia is a two tiered system including a private and public sector. Medicare is a universal health insurance scheme under the public system. It was introduced on the 1st of February 1984 by the Australian Labor party the principal is for all Australian to have equal access to health. There are three levels of government these include Local, State or territory and Federal, all three have different roles to perform in terms of health care. The local government is responsible for towns and districts, moreover, local councils or shires function is to operate systems and projects such as sewage, garbage disposals and maintenance of the safety food standard. Both state and federal direct different parts of Medicare. State government manages public hospital within their territory or state, the state government receives 40%-50% of the total cost of expenditures for the public hospital from the Federal government. Lastly, Federal role includes payments to primary health services there include GPs, the majority of nurses, medical specialists and allied health professionals. In 1996 Budget guaranteed the renewal of private health insurance.

Do Americans believe meritocracy exists in America? Do talented people who work hard earning the reward that they deserve? Do talented people have enough challenges for their promotion that they merit? Living in the United States, many people think meritocracy exists because people expect about the opportunities to learn, to work, to earn, and to deserve. People also think they may have chances to earn what they deserve because the trusting of meritocracy. However, talented people do not receive any adequate reward as they expect. Meritocracy does not exist in America and becomes a myth for many debates. Moreover, most talented people in America who work hard still have fewer resources, less promotion,

In Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, a student’s chances of academic success are greatly influenced by factors such as ‘ parental wealth, occupational status, education and aspirations’ (Argy, 2007:para3,

Regardless of the financial costs of education, statistics show in the years from 1983 to 1996 numbers of students in tertiary education doubled and retention rates within secondary schooling reached new heights, rising from 40.6% in 1983 to 71.3% in 1996 (Jamrozik, 2009), clearly placing education as a high value within the Australian society and becoming a lifetime pursuit for many people. However historically, the changes that have occurred over the years, have reinforced Australia’s problem with social inequalities within the education system.

Students: including those studying from full-time to part-time, locally or by distance, from high to low socio-economic backgrounds and of varying ages