The Myth Of Upward Mobility
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ธ.ค. 2021
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The Myth Of Upward Mobility - Second Thought
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Citations and Further Reading:
Is the US a Meritocracy?
• Is The US Really A Mer...
Statistics & Research on Upward Mobility
psmag.com/economics/new-resea...
• Is America Dreaming?: ...
sociologicalscience.com/downl...
inequality.stanford.edu/sites...
inequality.stanford.edu/sites...
press.princeton.edu/ideas/a-b...
inequality.stanford.edu/sites...
Meritocracy, Socialism, and Neoliberalism
library.oapen.org/bitstream/i...
www.theguardian.com/commentis...
books.google.com/books?hl=en&...
• Meritocracy and Its Di...
www.jacobinmag.com/2021/04/ri...
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I like a George Carlin line: "The reason they call it the 'American Dream' is 'cuz you have to be asleep to believe it."
5:40
"Opportunity itself has been comodified." I think that's the most succinct way I've been able to articulate what I see where people with money are able to get their kids better schooling, lunches, clothing, comforts, etc.
"I don't want a union to hold me back. I want to go out there and see what I'm worth in the free market, what I'm truly worth." An American friend said that. It's amazing how the narcissistic self-regard of American individualism pushes people to go against their own interests and even see that as The Truth
My grandparents did very well, coming from rural Indiana to upper middle class. Growing up I always thought they were just better than other people, but when I got older working all the time going nowhere I started to realize something wasn't right. People like my grandparents were born into one of the most prosperous times in US history and have the nerve to tell later generations we're not working hard enough. The 80's in particular destroyed the souls of a lot of good people. It made them callous and hostile toward anyone who is struggling.
“Let’s quickly go over liberalism”
My parents were well off. I'm talking multiple houses etc. They bought into this myth, and honestly made my life hell for it. I had learning disabilities and celiac, none of which they treated. I had to work 2x as hard to pass anything. They then blamed me for it and I was forced to work as young as I was able in a minimum wage job to teach me what my life would be like if I didn't fall in line. They also stole my wages to keep me from wasting the wages. When I hit college I got SO SICK. I thought I would die. Instead of helping me, guess what they did. Forced me to get a minimum wage to teach me a lesson. I passed out from pain several times at that job. I don't talk to them anymore..... Can you guess why.
A Yale professor once said (not verbatim) "people can imagine themselves crossing a puddle or a pond but can't imagine themselves crossing an ocean. When wealth inequality becomes an ocean people on one side start listening to anti-esablishemt rhetoric."
When I first moved to Hollywood to pursue my music career in 1986, a producer I met told me, "With the music industry, it doesn't matter how good you are. In fact, you don't have to be a good musician at all. It's all about who you know and who you blow."
Socialists:
When this topic comes up I always use the real life example of April Ellison, a person that was born a black slave, and died as a black slaveowner.
In my Sociology 101 class, the professor once asked what the primary factor was in determining how much money a person would make in their life, and everyone was throwing out meritocratic ideals, and each of them were told they were wrong. Then I was like, “how much your parents make”, and he said, “that’s it.” :shrug: I was always pretty aware of the disparity of opportunities.
There are even studies that show that brain forms differently in kids, who are raised in families with different income. The parts, which usually make good self-control possible, don't get properly formed if children experience malnutrition or lack of external stimulation in early childhood.
I'm happy there's a bit more humor in these videos. Sometimes it's hard to watch leftist content because of how depressing our world is.
"The United States had two choices to make: increase capitalism or democracy. Unfortunately, the neoliberals made the choice and increased capitalism, and rolled back democracy, that now capitalists have more power than the public." - Noam Chomsky.
the problem with the concept of meritocracy is who decides what's of merit. it's always the people in power, and they value what allowed them to succeed and what let's them hold power as holding the most merit. we live in a meritocracy, and maximizing wealth is the largest sign of merit, not creativity, intelligence, diligence, discovery, charity, etc. then they sell that back to the average person so they attach other positive attributes to them (genius, morality, divinity, etc)
The Loughborough research - the first large-scale quantitative study into the phenomenon - found 71% of young single adults were living with their parents during their early 20s, and a majority (54%) were living at the parental home in their late 20s, falling to a third of those in their early 30s
The origins of the concept of "meritocracy" added some rather mind blowing context that makes the decades of its unironic usage kind of terrifying. Thanks, I think.
Meritocracy is both the lie that everyone gets what they deserve and the justification for inaction. Another way to blame the individual for society's problems.
As someone who is constantly praise for having "made it", i absolutely detest hearing people use me as an example of how hard work pays off. Yes, hard work does indeed pay off but I would love it if those people went and thanked my mother, whose absolutely back breaking and exhausting work allowed me only have to focus about going to school and nothing else. As it turns out, even when you live in a disgusting one bedroom apartment in "inner city neighborhood" and sleep in a bed with your mom and little brother, not having to worry about where to sleep, what to eat, or paying any bills really does have it's advantages. It also doesn't hurt that my mom finished college in our native country and made it clear (practically everyday) that she expected nothing less than a bachelor's (minimum) from us.