NASCAR as an example of a meritocracy with equal opportunity for all. While frequently maligned for it's relatively primitive technology (excluding safety ), the total lack of mechanical resemblance (other than appearance) of the "stock" cars to the brand they represent, soap-opera-slash-professional wrestling story lines, and being ripe political target for both the right and the left as well as marketers, it is a strong cultural force. The entrance of Toyota (likely to surpass GM as #2 US automaker in the near-future) into NASCAR (with the hopes of "winning on Sunday and selling on Monday" in the heartland) and the cheating scandal currently unravelling highlight an important concept woven into NASCAR's culture. [more]
posted on Feb 15, 2007 - View this thread

The Bitchun Society is now open for all of your Whuffie-market needs. Or cynical mocking, take your pick. Via (of course) BoingBoing. Can a brother get a ping? Confused?
posted on Oct 6, 2006 - View this thread

"A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America. Income inequality is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s. But social mobility is not increasing at anything like the same pace: would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the social heap. The United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society."
posted on Jan 3, 2005 - View this thread

Michael Young's critique of the meritocracy is brilliant, subversive and quite possibly based on faulty assumptions. "It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others."
posted on Jun 29, 2001 - View this thread

Racial discrimination at ford? White male managers accuse the Ford Motor Co. of reverse discrimination, claiming they are victims of racial, age and gender bias. After reading this article, I'm really at a loss as to where the racism is. They are reviewing all management and ditching those in the worst 5%...

"... older white managers who received "Cs" after long highly productive careers say they feel they are victims of discrimination."

Golly Pal. You know, the past counts for something but you have to keep producing or you're gonna get canned. What's the problem here? This isn't racism, it's meritocracy and I'm all for it. If they were giving bonuses to the evaluations based on ethnic background or sex then I could see the gripe. But the article doesn't say they are so what exactly is wrong with cutting the fat?
posted on Jun 20, 2001 - View this thread