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.