Sandel's brilliant account of meritocracy, and how it's destroying American society.

Escandaloso o que o autor começa por explicar, no acesso às prestigiadas universidades dos Estados Unidos. Quem tem muito dinheiro, simplesmente paga! Há 3 formas de o fazer, pela porta da frente (donativos) pela porta do lado (pagando a clubes, treinadores, referências que vão ajudar na avaliação do aluno) ou pela porta de trás, completamente criminoso, pagando muito a intermediários que corrompem funcionários, professores, treinadores, o que for.

Os pobres, se forem mesmo brilhantes e conseguirem resultados fabulosos nos exames, podem entrar, os outros ficam de fora. A estatística é arrasadora: Os filhos dos ricos entram todos em Stanford, Harvard, California, etc etc...

Sandel describes and refutes varoious theories of meritocracy. While meritocracy is beloved by many as a much favored alternative to heredity, Sandel shows how it doesn't lead to justice (depending on how one defines justice) -- it doesn't build a sense of all contributing to the common good. Meritocracy results in those who get ahead becoming proud and attributing their success to their own efforts (Sandel shows how so much of this success is NOT based on pure merit), and results in those who lose being humiliated. Even if it could work perfectly, those who have exceptional talents did nothing to earn those talents, and so they should not be seen as having earned their deserts. Sandel treats both education and the economy in this discussion. The way forward is to dramatically restructure the way our culture assigns importance to different types of jobs and to detach that value from pure economic accumulation -- they need to be considered in terms of how they contribute to the common good. So, a school teacher would be valued more than a casino owner because the school teacher contributes more to the common good (unless you use only money as your measure). This is a compelling argument and has me pondering how this concept relates to the way of Jesus. Interestingly, Sandel makes many references to biblical texts and Christianity, sometimes seeing these as the source of meritocracy and sometimes seeing ways that this faith may work against meritocracy, though he puts more weight on the former. I don't agree with some of the ways he describes Lutheran and Calvinistic traditions -- he draws too heavily on Weber in describing these and lacks some understanding. But nonetheless, he raises provocative questions about how Christianity has contributed to meritocracy. This is tragic in my view, because God values us all regardless of ability or hard work or contributions. I'm quite drawn to the direction Sandel points, though a move in that direction seems like a distant dream.

A reminder that success is not inherently a value or a marker of self-worth.

Should merit dictate what we deserve and how our lives should go? And what does it mean if merit is the building block of how we value ourselves and others? And what if it is how politics is justified? Michael J. Sandel argues in his book how merit and meritocracy rule our modern societies and politics and how they have led to popular movements, especially as the elite overlook how their own policies are more the cause of how people can get ahead in life. So what is this merit and meritocratic idea? It is the thought that the effort you put into things (life goals, job, studying) defines the outcome. To put it in extreme terms: those who never got that high-paying job are due to the fact they didn't work hard enough.

Sandel argues that meritocracy seems more equal on the surface than the idea that your birth defines what profession you can pursue and what you can ever become. But what is often overlooked is that people don't have equal chances to do things, even in our modern societies. Thusly, the idea that everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed in the world is questionable, especially as the current trend in social mobility has stagnated and actually moves downward. Then there is the question of how and what we value in our society. If making the maximum amount of money in life is the top goal despite the cost to oneself and society, then stockbrokers speculating with our future and bailed-out bankers are more valuable than, say, a nurse. And the thing is, as Sandel points out, we clearly value stockbrokers and bankers more than the nurse who puts on a mask and apron to safeguard themselves from all the potential threats they face during their shift to aid strangers.

Sandel argues that we as a society have put too much stress on higher education to be the salvation anyone can use to escape such fate as becoming a nurse with low wages. First, he argues that the whole education system and who gets in is already skewed and unequal. Second, it seems to value one set of skills over others (like seeing plumbers, dental nurses, and so on somehow losers who didn't work hard enough to get into a premium university.) And Sandel argues that all this is present in our societies, and it is no wonder people feel devalued, alienated, and restless, especially as this rhetoric is part of the public speech through our politicians and other elite.

But I better stop here and let you read the rest. This is an excellent book, and I didn't do justice to the argumentation. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you for reading. Have a beautiful day!

Interesting idea here. Worth a read just for that. I would say this book is pretty repetitive, and seems to meander a little. Could probably cut a little out of it and still get the idea. Offers a few options/ideas of how to look at things. Not bad.