Friday, July 27, 2012

“Who says meritocracy says oligarchy”

In order for it to live up to its ideals, a meritocracy must comply with two principles. The first is the Principle of Difference, which holds that there is vast differentiation among people in their ability and that we should embrace this natural hierarchy and set ourselves the challenge of matching the hardest-working and most talented to the most difficult, important and remunerative tasks. The second is the Principle of Mobility. Over time, there must be some continuous, competitive selection process that ensures performance is rewarded and failure punished. That is, the delegation of duties cannot simply be made once and then fixed in place over a career or between generations. People must be able to rise and fall along with their accomplishments and failures. When a slugger loses his swing, he should be benched; when a trader loses money, his bonus should be cut. At the broader social level, we hope that the talented children of the poor will ascend to positions of power and prestige while the mediocre sons of the wealthy will not be charged with life-and-death decisions. Over time, in other words, society will have mechanisms that act as a sort of pump, constantly ensuring that the talented and hard-working are propelled upward, while the mediocre trickle downward. But this ideal, appealing as it may be, runs up against the reality of what I’ll call the Iron Law of Meritocracy. The Iron Law of Meritocracy states that eventually the inequality produced by a meritocratic system will grow large enough to subvert the mechanisms of mobility. Unequal outcomes make equal opportunity impossible. The Principle of Difference will come to overwhelm the Principle of Mobility. Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them, or to selectively lower it down to allow their friends, allies and kin to scramble up. In other words: “Who says meritocracy says oligarchy.”
LINK Энэ өгүүлэл дээр дурьдсан "The Gatsby Curve" гэдэг ойлголт маш сонирхолтой санагдлаа. Үүний цаана баян хоосны ялгаа хэр байгааг харуулж байгаагаас гадна аавын цалин 1 хувь өсөхөд түүний хүүхэд ирээдүйд хэдэн төгрөгний цалин авах вэ гэдэг хүлээлтэнд яаж нөлөөлж байгааг харуулсан байна. Хэрэв энэхүү муруйг Монголд хийх гэж оролдвол ямаршуу дүр зураг гарч ирэхийг ер нь гадарлаж байна шүү. Ялангуяа уул уурхай, барилга хоёр дээр суурьлан өсөлт явагдаж байгаа үед газар болоод лиценз гэсэн хоёр салбарын хамгийн чухал хоёр хүчин зүйл бол эргээд "сүлжээ", "танилын хүрээ" цаашлаад "гар хүндрүүлэлт"-ээс шууд хамааралтай байдаг болохоор "The Gatsby Curve" дээрх босоо тэнхлэгийн хувьд Монгол нилээн дээгүүрт тавигдах байх даа. Та юу гэж бодож байна? Энд The Gatsby Curve-н талаар Кругман-ы нийтлэсэн өгүүлэл байна. LINK