American Meritocracy: The Myth of Success

Molly Crabapple

Just read something that is almost verbatim what I've been saying for years -- that didn't lessen the impact of reading it for me. As much as the myth that 'we are all created equal' seems to have a heart of gold, it has some pretty nasty repercussions in the real world.

Those with money usually think they deserve it. But most people who make the world run—who care for kids, who grow food, who would rebuild after natural disasters and societal collapse—will never be rich, no matter how hard or well they work, because society is constructed with only so much room on top.
Once, I met with a man who runs an idea festival. He was a great admirer of businessmen who became Buddhist monks. "I don't like protest," the man told me. "It's too much about ego. Ego is the problem with America."
I thought of the workers busting their backs lifting boxes at warehouses, while an electronic tracker yelled at them to work faster. Are their egos too big?

Go and read it. We'll wait.

Article, "Filthy Lucre."

[Where is the fucking counterculture? Mythos Media.]