The Meritocracy Trap

How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite

By: Daniel Markovits

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

A revolutionary new argument from eminent Yale Law professor Daniel Markovits attacking the false promise of meritocracy

It is an axiom of American life that advantage should be earned through ability and effort. Even as the country divides itself at every turn, the meritocratic ideal - that social and economic rewards should follow achievement rather than breeding - reigns supreme. Both Democrats and Republicans insistently repeat meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to the heart of who we are. It sustains the American dream.

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 meritocracy’s successes.

This is the radical argument that Daniel Markovits prosecutes with rare force. Markovits is well placed to expose the sham of meritocracy. Having spent his life at elite universities, he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within. Markovits also knows that, if we understand that meritocratic inequality produces near-universal harm, we can cure it. When The Meritocracy Trap reveals the inner workings of the meritocratic machine, it also illuminates the first steps outward, towards a new world that might once again afford dignity and prosperity to the American people.

*Includes a PDF of figures and tables.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Daniel Markovits (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"We’ve been waiting for the Big Book that explains America's wrong turn. Daniel Markovits has supplied it. The Meritocracy Trap is a sociological masterpiece - a damning indictment of parenting and schools, an unflattering portrait of a ruling class and the economy it invented. Far too many readers will recognize themselves in his brilliant critique, and they will feel a rush of anger, a pang of regret, and a burning desire to remake the system." (Franklin Foer, author of World Without Mind)

"Provocatively weighing in on growing inequality, Daniel Markovits weaves a disturbing tale of merit and social division. Pulling no punches, he warns us that meritocracy is a trap, fetishizing certain skills and endless assessments. Markovitz shows - in exquisite detail - the perverse link between an upper class education and elite jobs and how together they enrich the few, while devaluing and demoralizing the rest." (Jerry Brown, former governor of California)

"At once wide-ranging and rigorous, subtle and penetrating, Markovits’s book is revelatory both in its particulars and in its big picture. Anyone who wants to argue about the merits of meritocracy must take account of this book." (Kwame Anthony Appiah, professor of philosophy and law, NYU, and author of The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity)

Good book.

Lots of interesting ideas and information. Well balanced and focused on real data and not stereotypes. Finishes well with ideas on how to address the root causes.

spot on

Easy to listen to at 1.5 speed. Adept assessment of modern income inequality. Robust conclusion albeit narrow and ultimately assumes implicit the monetary mechanisms that create the social corruption.

Eye opening

Having gone to private school I could relate to this . The hustle culture of the upper class is real and destructive to well being of those who make it and self esteem to those who fail.

A well-argued theory

This book starts off with a bang. Markovits' introduction has so many assertions that it may be worth listening to twice, especially for those of us who have always assumed meritocracy is an unchallengeable good.

It's an interesting thesis. I can envision many people reading the sections about how meritocracy hurts the elite and rolling their eyes, but, by the end of the book, Markovits has made a strong case that "the rich and the rest" can find common ground that benefits them both.

The general premise of "The Meritocracy Trap" is that the rich are able to invest substantially more in developing the human capital of their children, and then use this advantage to make the work at the upper limits of the job pool ever more lucrative (if not necessarily productive toward societal-level benefits). This repeats itself from generation to generation, in a positive feedback loop (read: trap). Whereas the aristocratic rich were susceptible to hard-working meritocrats usurping their position as elites, the meritocrats are continuously improving their position, making their replacement unlikely as long as creating "the best and brightest" is the ideal.

I would like to have seen Markovits co-author this book with an economist (he has some influential ones there at Yale) just to provide a deeper perspective into the financial aspects. Even a professor of education would have been a good addition, but he still does a thorough job of fleshing out his thesis.

It does seem to never surpass the level of being a theory, and I am sure there will be some rebuttals in the following weeks. However, this is a worthwhile book to get the conversation started. We DO need a dialogue between the rich and the rest, and we DO need to find a common ground where both groups are more satisfied than they are currently.

Fred Sanders does a good job narrating, at it was easily understandable through 3.50x speed.

This book turned me around 180 degrees.

Who would have thought there was so much harm being done by meritocracy. The book was very insightful!

Insight into the animosity again elite

This book presented a novel an compelling argument against the largely unchallenged justice of a system that promotes based on merit. The author offers poingnant insight into the current state of American class strife by respectfully portraying the lived struggles of both the insanely hard working yet exorbitantly wealthy and the frustrated and suffering middle and lower economic classes. I would give this book to any Trump or Bernie supporter who feels frustrated with the current state of our country and longs for revolution and swamp draining. This book offers real middle ground and shows both sides an enemy we likely have not have considered... Meritocracy itself.

Fascinating read. Inadequate solution.

Markovits does a phenomenal job laying out the problem with modern meritocracy in extensive detail. He captures the current cultural and political environment perfectly, and paints a picture that connects today’s ills with a lack of both wages and status for the middle class. At the same time, he shows why this is a poor model for elite workers, who face burnout and strive to put their children through the same difficult tournaments in a quest for the status that modern meritocracy awards to its winners.

Through no fault of the author, the proposed remedies for the problems the meritocracy come up short and provide a sharp contrast to the wide-ranging discussions laying out the problems with meritocracy. The basic suggestion that we essentially “be less efficient” and bring more middle-skill (and this middle class) jobs into the economy ignores the global and competitive nature of today’s economy.

We are all in the same trap

Markovits offers a perspective that escapes the zero sum solutions on the social scene today. It offers not so much a solution as descriptions of the problem and perspectives for righting the ship of state.

Well-Researched; Interesting; Thought-Provoking

This is a very interesting book. The basic thesis is as follows:

Largely over the past century or so, our society has transitioned from one which resembled an Aristocracy to one which had a large vibrant middle class, to one dominated by highly-educated, highly-skilled, and very hard-working "Meritocratic Elites". Our society APPEARS to be something of a meritocracy. "Appears" is because, as the book demonstrates in many, many ways, the way this "meritocracy" works out in real life largely precludes children of any but the current meritocratic elites from rising to realize the promised benefits of their "merit." The author argues that the currently successful "upper class" meritocrats are able to spend enormous money and effort helping their children to succeed. Similarly capable children of the current "lower class" have no chance to reasonably compete against the children of the current meritocratic elite. Thus, the children of meritocrats have a spectacular unfair advantage over their less fortunate peers. This advantage isn't because the children of the meritocratic elites are smarter or more inherently capable of learning/perfecting skills -- it is because, from an early age, they tend to get significant education and nurturing that their non-elite (but equally intrinsically capable) peers simply do not -- and cannot -- get.

The author supports his thesis with lucid erudite arguments which sound at times like they are coming from: A History Professor, A Sociology Professor, or an Economics Professor. That's impressive, because the author is ... a Law Professor. Even more impressive is that the author can criticize the current system when he has been the clear beneficiary thereof.

Among the most significant causes of the problem, he posits, is that the best, most high-paying, interesting jobs tend to go to graduates of the most elite colleges and universities. But those colleges and universities tend to offer admission only to the privileged few who have benefitted from a lifetime of expensive schooling and opportunities only available to children of the rich (and those rich tend to be these currently successful "meritocrats").

There are MANY, MANY very sage observations made by the author. Many of the declarations are so broadly interesting that they could easily spur a complete paper or book analyzing support for and against the proposition in question.

Among the interesting solutions proposed by the author:
- Require colleges and universities to have at least half of their students from families in the bottom two-thirds of the socio-economic ladder. The federal government could incentivize this by making it a requirement in order for the institution to retain its currently tax-free status. Otherwise, the college/university would have to pay income taxes on income generated by its endowment. When you are talking about taxing income from, for example, Harvard's ~$40 BILLION endowment, you are talking significant money.
- Remove the current earnings cap on "FICA" taxes. Currently, these taxes apply only to the first ~$140k of earned income -- thus unfairly benefiting the very-high income elites. The subsequent increase in government tax revenue (from removing the cap) could be used to provide better quality schooling and other nurturing to the lower class -- thus allowing them to compete better against children of the richer elites.

I very much enjoyed this book. The narrator was excellent.

Loved it.

It turns out I was born at the height of social and income equality. Both have done nothing but decline since then. This is a GREAT history and analysis. Paints a very clear picture. No citations. It is a book that is meant to be read and has a powerful sorry to tell. An important book.