This book flips your world upside down. Daniel Markovits argues that meritocracy isnt a virtuous, efficient system that rewards the best and brightest. Instead it rewards middleclass families who can afford huge investments in their childrens education ... Frightening, eyeopening stuff The Times, Books of the Year Even in the midst of runaway economic inequality and dangerous social division, it remains an axiom of modern life that meritocracy reigns supreme and promises to open opportunity to all. The idea that reward should follow ability and effort is so entrenched in our psyche that, even as society divides itself at almost every turn, all sides can be heard repeating meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we think we are.But what if, both up and down the social ladder, meritocracy is a sham? Today, meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist a mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations. Upward mobility has become a fantasy, and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time, meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top, requiring rich adults to work with crushing intensity, exploiting their expensive educations in order to extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but rather stems directly from meritocracys...

Binding: Paperback;464 pages; Publisher: TBS-Penguin Random House Wholesale; Classification: JFFA; Weight: 442 g; Dimensions: 130 x 196 x 25

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