Rating:  ☆☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:  Daniel Markovits

Genre:   Nonfiction, Education, Sociology, Economics, Public Policy

448 pages, published September 10, 2019

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

The thesis of The Meritocracy Trap by Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits is that our current meritocratic society is ill serving both the winners and losers.  The losers who inhabit the bottom half (or maybe even more than that) of our country have seen their jobs exported or eliminated, see a worse future for their children, and are struggling to survive.  Their once nice towns are turning shabby as their kids move to urban centers or become addicted to opioids.  The winners, those who inhabit the top rungs of society, no longer pass down wealth in the manner of previous generation’s aristocracies.  Instead, they invest mightily in their children from birth through graduate school to become part of the hypercompetitive professional class in a winner take all game.  Having so much invested in their own human capital, modern day meritocratic winners willingly step onto a grueling treadmill of work and competition as this is the only way to maximize their return on investment.  They are left with lots of wealth, but at a steep, soul sucking cost.

Quotes 

“The traditional way of thinking about the conflict between the rich and the rest—as a battle between capital and labor—no longer captures what is really going on.”

 

“The overwhelmingly greater part of the recent increase in the top 1 percent’s aggregate income share is attributable not to a shift of overall income away from labor and in favor of capital, but rather to a shift within labor income, away from the middle class and in favor of elite workers.”

My Take

The Meritocracy Trap is one of the most interesting books that I have read in a long time.  Before reading it, I would have reflexively stated that meritocracy is an unalloyed good that brings efficiency and wealth to societies that embrace it.  After reading this book, I’m not so sure.  While my husband and I (both lawyers from an elite law school who are early retirees) escaped the punishing aspects of work described in the book, I do not want my children to pursue careers where they are putative “winners,” but miss out on the things that make life purposeful and meaningful.  I also have a lot of empathy for the “losers” in our country who struggle to keep the American Dream alive and have little chance of entering the top rung.  Markovits made me think about these ideas for a long time after I finished this book; the hallmark of a great read.