Erik Torenberg on insincere egalitarianism; Rob Henderson on same; Thomas Fazi on Crisis and Leviathan; Timothy Taylor on the Fed's plans for its balance sheet
"If you are sincerely meritocratic, you will have too many enemies. If you are sincerely egalitarian, then you will be a chump."
I don't think he's saying that at all. You need egalitarianism *of opportunity* to find the best people, the diamonds in the rough, and meritocracy *of result* to reward their performance, to polish them. You can be sincerely both if you put them in the proper balance and the proper context.
You develop enemies if you practice meritocracy *of opportunity*, i.e. excluding people from your pool of candidates and making selections based on opaque criteria. The chumps are the ones practicing "equity" or egalitarianism *of result*
Re: "If you are sincerely meritocratic, you will have too many enemies."
Selective universities persuade themselves that they are thoroughly meritocratic. (Witness, for example, the rank-order parades of faculty and students—displays of finely calibrated merit—at commencement ceremonies.) They construe and implement equity as the overdue completion of meritocracy. They thereby seem to have made more friends than enemies.
Sincere belief in meritocracy comes readily to those who participate in status games.
"If you are sincerely meritocratic, you will have too many enemies. If you are sincerely egalitarian, then you will be a chump."
If you are sincerely meritocratic, you will have the perfect number of enemies, and they will all be of the perfect type: Unable to project force.
"If you are sincerely meritocratic, you will have too many enemies. If you are sincerely egalitarian, then you will be a chump."
I don't think he's saying that at all. You need egalitarianism *of opportunity* to find the best people, the diamonds in the rough, and meritocracy *of result* to reward their performance, to polish them. You can be sincerely both if you put them in the proper balance and the proper context.
You develop enemies if you practice meritocracy *of opportunity*, i.e. excluding people from your pool of candidates and making selections based on opaque criteria. The chumps are the ones practicing "equity" or egalitarianism *of result*
The world is run by chumps, then.
Re: "If you are sincerely meritocratic, you will have too many enemies."
Selective universities persuade themselves that they are thoroughly meritocratic. (Witness, for example, the rank-order parades of faculty and students—displays of finely calibrated merit—at commencement ceremonies.) They construe and implement equity as the overdue completion of meritocracy. They thereby seem to have made more friends than enemies.
Sincere belief in meritocracy comes readily to those who participate in status games.