The Meritocracy Myth: How the Super-Rich Really Make Their Money

[MindMover]

Warren Buffett once claimed that the "genius of the American economy, our emphasis on a meritocracy and a market system and a rule of law has enabled generation after generation to live better than their parents did." The Economist suggested that "people succeed through brains and hard work." Economist Tyler Cowen believes in a "hyper-meritocracy" in which wealth is created by the most intelligent and motivated people.

That all sounds very inspirational. But the super-rich tend to make their money in less meritorious ways.


1. Betting on Food Prices to Rise

Chris Hedges noted that Goldman Sachs’ commodities index "is the most heavily traded in the world. The company hoards rice, wheat, corn, sugar and livestock and jacks up commodity prices around the globe so that poor families can no longer afford basic staples and literally starve." Numerous sources agree that speculation drives up commodity prices. Wheat, for example, rose in price from $105 to $481 in just eight years.


http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/the-meritocracy-myth-how-the-super-rich-really-make-their-money

[TBF]

1. This --> Having the Right Friends and Relatives

There are some socialists (one I can think of in particular on the Internet but no longer a member here) who has traced the wealthy in this country and can show all the links between top families. They send their children to private school together & those children marry each other. It is not solely this type of intermingling that hoards the money, but it is a big issue. There will always be a few Steve Jobs types here & there who make it ... and that is chiefly how they make their argument - "see anyone can do it". Maybe so, but there are only a few of those every generation while most of the wealth stays in the same top known families.

[unblock]

2. the myth persists because it is not a lie but a half-truth:

brains and smarts are *involved* in getting super-rich, but they are hardly the sole factors.

bill gates certainly worked hard and perhaps he had some smarts, but how many people also had the means to start a company at the age of 19 with a $5 million dollar investment from their father?

businesses also "do good" by providing goods and services, but for this they earn a nominal return. outsized profits involve taking advantage of anti-competitive and anti-capitalist conditions, such as inhibiting fair competition, taking advantage of monopolistic conditions, leveraging power for negotiating purposes, forcing costs onto unwitting third parties, etc.

in short, the big bucks arise from taking advantage of everything that is *wrong* with our system. the myth ascribes profit to what little is *right* about our system.

[MindMover]

3. BINGO ... and later, political winds change .... they were called CHEATERS ...