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Keynes J. Essays in Persuasion. 3rd ed 3rd ed. Palgrave
Macmillan UK 2016.
PAllTV
2. EcoNOMIC Poss1BILITIES FOR. ouR.
GRKNDCHILDR.EN
(1930)
I
We are suffering just now from a b~d attack
of economic pessimism. . It is common to hear
people say that the epoch of enormous economic
progress which characterised·the nineteenth century is over; that the rapid improvement in the
standard of life is now going to slow down
-at any rate in Great Britain; that a decline
in prosperity is more likely than an improvement in the decade which lies ahead of us.
I believe that this is a wildly mistaken interpretation of what is_ happc;ning to us. We are
suffering, not from the rheumatics of old age,
but from the growing-pains of over-•rapid
changes, from the painfulness of readjustment
between one economic feriod and another.
The increase of technica efficiency has been
taking place faster than we can deal with the
problem of labour absorption; the improvement in the standard of life has been a little too
quick; the banking and monetary system of
the world has been preventing the rate of
int~rest from falling as. fast as equilibrium requires. And even so, the waste and confusion
358 ·
THE FUTURE
359
which ensue relate to not more than 7½ per
cent of the national income; we are muddling
away one and sixpence in the £, and have only
18s. 6d., when we might, if we WCI”.~ more
sensible, have£ 1 ; yet, nevertheless, the I 8s. 6d.
mounts up to as much as the £1 would have
been five or six years ago. We forget that in
192.9 the t>hysical output of the industry of
Great Britain was greater than ever before, and
that the net surplus of our foreign balance available for new foreign investment, after paying
for all our imports, was greater last year than
that of any other country, being indeed 50 per
cent greater than the correspondin~ surplus o~
the United States. Or again-if 1t is to be a
matter of comparisons-suppose that we were
to reduce our wages by a half, repudiate fourfifths of the national debt, and hoard our surplus wealth in barren gold instead of lending it
at 6 per cent or more, we should resemble the
now much-envied France. ._But would it be an
improvement?
The prevailing world depression, the enormous ·anomaly of unemployment in a world full
of wants, the disastrous mistakes we have made,
blind us to what is going on under the surfaceto the true interpretation. of the trend of things.
For I predict that both of the two opposed
errors of pessimism which now make so much
noise in the world will be proved wron~ in our
own time-the pessimism of the revolutionaries
who think that things are so bad that nothing
can save us but violent change, and the pessim-
360
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION
PART
ism of the reactionaries who consider the balance
of our economic and social life so precarious
that we riust risk no experiments.
My purpose in this essay, however, is not to
_examine the present or the near future, but to
disembarrass myself of short views and take
wings into the future. What can we reasonably
expect the levell'” of our economic life to be a
hundred years hence? What are the economic
possibilities for our grandchildren?
From the earliest times of which we have
record-back, say, to two thousand years before
Christ-down to the beginning of the eighteenth
century, there was no very great change in the
standard of life of the average man living in the
civilised centres of the earth. Ups and downs
certainly. Visitations of plague, famine, and
war. Golden intervals. But no progressive,
violent change. Some periods perhaps 50 per
cent better than others-at the utmost 100 per
cent better-in the four thousand years which
ended (say) in A.D. I 700.
This slow r~te of progress, or lack of progress, was due to two reasons-to the remarkable absence of important technical improvements and to the failure of capital to accumulate.
The absence of important technical inventions between the prehistoric age and comparatively modern times is truly remarkable.
Almost everything which really matters and
which the world possessed at the commencement of the modern age was already known to
man at the dawn of history. Language, fire,
V
THE FUTURE
the same domestic animals which · we- have
to-day, wheat, barley, the vine and the• olive,
the plough, the wheel, the oar, the sail, leather,
linen and cloth, bricks and pots, gold and silver,
copper, tin, and lead-and iron was added to
the list before 1 ooo B.c.-banking, statecraft,
mathematics, astronomy, and· religion. There
is no record of when we first possessed these
things.
At some epoch before the dawn of historyperhaps even in one of the comfortable intervals
before the last ice age-there must have been
an era of progress and invention comparable to
that in which we live to-day. But through the
greater part of recorded history there was
nothing of the kind.
The modern age opened, I think, with the
accumulation of capital which began in the
sixteenth century. I believe-for reasons with
which l must not encumber the present argument-that this was initially due to the rise of
prices, a~d the profits to which that led, which
resulted from the treasure of gold and . silver
which Spain brought from the New World into
the Old. From that time until to-day the power
of accumulation by compound interest, which
seems to have been sleeping for many generations, was re-born and renewed its strength.
And the power of toplpound interest over two
hundred years is such as to stagger the imagination.
Let me give in illustration of this a sum which
I have worked out. The value of Great Britain’s
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION
PART
foreign investments to-day is estim~ted at about
£4,000,000,000. This yields us an income at
the ratt of about 6½ per cent. Half of this we
bring home and enjoy; the other half, namely,
3¼ per cent, we leave to accumulate abroad at
compound interest. Something of this sort has
now been going on for about 2 50 years.
For I trace the beginnings of British foreign
investment to the treasure which Drake stole
from Spain in r 580. In that year he returned
to England bringing with him the prodigious
spoils of the Golden Hind. Queen E lizabeth was a considerable shareholder in the
syndicate which had financed the expedition.
Out of her share she paid off the whole of England’s fore_ign debt, balanced her_Budget, and
found herself with about £40,000 in hand.
This she invested in the Levant Companywhich prospered. Out of the profits of the
Levant Company, the East India Company
was founded; and the profits of this great
enterprise were the foundation of England’s
subsequent f9reign investment. Now it happens that £40,000 accumulating at J¼ per cent
compound interest approximately corresponds
to the actual volume of England’s foreign investments at various dates, and would actually
amount to-day to the total of £4,000,000,000
which I have already quoted as being what
our foreign investments now are. Thus, every
£r which Drake brought home in r 580 has
l!OW become £ r 00,000. Such is the power of
compound interest I
V
THE FU TURE
From the sixteenth century, with a cumulative
crescendo after the eighteenth, the great age of
science and technical inventions began, which
since the beginning of the nineteenth century
has been in full flood-coal, steam, electricity,
petrol, steel, rubber, cotton, the chemical industries, automatic machinery and the methods
of mass production, wi~eless, printing, Newton,
Darwin and Einstein, and thousands of other
things ~nd men too famous and familiar to
catalogue.
What is the result? In spite of an enormous
growth in the population of the world, which it
has been necessary to equip with houses and
machines, the average standard of life in Europe
and the United States has been raised, I think,
about fourfold. The growth of capital has
been on a scale which is far beyond a hundredfold of what any previous age had known. And
from now on we need not expect so great an
increase of population.
If capital increases, say, 2 per cent per annum,
the capital equipment of the world will have
increased by a half in twenty years, and seven
and a half times in a hundred years. Think of
this in terms of material things-houses, transport, and the like.
At the same time technical improvements in
manufacture and transport have been proceeding at a greater rate in the last ten years than
ever before in history. In the United States
factory output per head was 40 per cent greater
in 192 5 than in 19 r 9. In Europe we are held
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION
PART
back by temporary obstacles, but even so it is
safe to say that technical efficiency is increasing
by more~an I per cent per annum compound.
There is evidence that the revolutionary technical changes, which have so far chiefly affected
industry, may soon be attacking agriculture.
We may be on the eve of improvements in the
efficiency of fotrd production as great as those
which have already taken place in mining,
manufacture, and transport. In quite a few
years-in our own lifetimes I mean-we may
be able to perform all the operations of agriculture, mining, and manufacture with a quarter
of the human effort to which we have been
accustomed.
For the moment the very rapidity of these
changes is hurting us and bringing difficult
problems t solve. Those countries are suffering relatively which are not in the vanguard of
progress. We are being afflicted with a new
disease of which some readers may not yet have
heard the name, but of which they will hear a
great deal in ~e years to come-na~ely, teclznological unemployment. This means unemployment due to our discovery of means of economising the use of labour outrunning the pace at
which we can find new uses for labour.
But this is only a temporary phase of maladjustment. All this means in the long run that
mankind is solving its eco11omic problem. I would
predict that the standard of life in progressive
countries one hundred years hence will be
between four and eight times as high as it is
V
THE FUTURE
to-day. There would be nothing surprising in
this even in the light of our present knowledge.
It would not be foolish to contemplate the
possibility of a far greater progress still.
II
Let us, for the sake of argument, suppose
that a hundred years hence we are all of us,
on the average, eight times better off in the
economic sense than we are to-day. Assuredly
there need be nothing here to surprise us.
Now it is true that the needs of human
beings may seem to be insatiable. But they
fall into two classes-those needs which are
absolute in the sense that we feel them whatever the situation of our fellow human beings
may be, and those which are relative in the
sense that we feel them only if their satisfaction
lifts us above, makes us feel superior to, our
fellows. Needs of the second class, those which
satisfy the desire for superiority, may indeed be
insatiable; for the higher the general level, the
higher still are they. But this is not so true
of the absolute needs-a point may soon be
reached, much sooner perhaps than we are all
of us aware of, when these needs are satisfied
in the sense that we pr~fer to devote our further
energies to non-economic purposes.
Now for my conclusion, which you will find,
I think, to become more and more startling to
the imagination the l~nger •you thin~ about
I draw the conclusion that, assuming no 1m-
!t·
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION
PART
portant wars and no important increase in popu
lation, the economic problem may be solved, or
be at· least within sight of solution, within a
hundred years. This means that the economic
problem is not-if we look into the future-the
permanent problem of the human race.
Why, you may ask, is this so startling? It
is startling because-if, instead of looking into
the future, we look into the past-we find that
the economic problem, the struggle for sub
sistence, always has been hitherto the primary,
most pressing problem of the human race-not
only of the human race, but of the whole of the
biological kingdom from the beginnings of life
in its most primitive forms.
Thus we have been expressly evolved by
nature-with all our impulses and deepest in
stincts-for the purpose of solving the economic
problem. If the economic problem is solved,
mankind wiII be deprived of its traditional pur
pose.
Will this be a benefit? If one believes at all
in the real valu�s of life, the prospect at least
opens up the possibility of benefit. Yet I think
with dread of the readjustment of the habits and
instincts of the ordinary man, bred into him for
countless generations, which he may be asked
to discard within a few decades.
To use the language of to-day-must we not
expect a general “nervous breakdown”? We
already have a ·little experience of what I mean
-a nervous breakdown of the sort which is
already common enough in England and the
V
THE FUTURE
United States amongst the wives of the well
to-do classes, unfortunate ·women, many of
them, who have been deprived by their wealth
of their traditional tasks and occupations-who
cannot find it sufficiently amusing, when de
prived of the spur of economic necessity, to cook
and clean and mend, yet are quite unable to
find anything more amusing.
To those who sweat for their daily bread
leisure is a longed-for sweet-until they get it.
There is the traditional epitaph written for
herself by the old charwoman:Don ‘t mourn for me, friends, don’t weep for me never,
For I’m going to do nothing for ever and ever.
This was her heaven. Like others who look
forward to leisure, she conceived how nice it
would be to spend her time listening-in-for
there was another couplet which occurred in
her poem:With psalms and sweet music _the heavens:u �e ringing,
_
But I shalJ have nothing to do wtth the singing.
Yet it will only be for those who· have to do
with the singing that life will be tolerable- ·
and how few of us can sing I
Thus for the first time since his creation man
will be faced with his. real, his permanent prob
lem-how to use his freedom from pressing
economic cares, how to occupy the leisure,
which science and compound interest will have
won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and
well.
‘
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION
PAR.T
. The strenuous purposeful money-makers may
carry all of us along with them into the lap of
economic abundance. But it will be those
peoples, who can keep alive, and cultivate into
a fuller perfection, the art of life itself and do not
sell themselves for the means of life, who will
be able to enjoy the abundance when it comes.
Yet there is no country and no people, I
think, who can look forward to the age of
leisure and of abundance without a dread. For
we have been trained too long to strive and not
to enjoy. It is a fearful problem for the ordinary
person, with no special talents, to occupy himself, especially if he no longer has roots in. the
soil or in custom or in the beloved conventions
of a traditional society. To judge from the behaviour and the achievements of the wealthy
classes to-day in any quarter of the world, the
outlook is very depressing 1 For these are, so
to speak, our advance guard-those who are
spyin~ out the promised land for the rest of us
and pitching their camp there. For they have
most of them failed disastrously, so it seems to
me-those who have an independent income
but no associations or duties or ties-to solve
the problem which has been set them.
I feel sure that with a little more experience
we shall use the new-found bounty of nature
quite differently from the way in which the rich
use it to-day, and will map out for ourselves a
plan of life quite otherwise than theirs.
.
For many ages to come the old Adam will
be so strong in us that everybody will need to
v
THE FUTURE
. 369
do some work if he is to be contented. We
shall do more things for ourselves than is usual
with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small
duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this,
we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on
the butter-to make what work there is still to
be done to be as widely shared as possible.
Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may
put off the problem for a great while. For
three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the
old Adam in most of us I
There are changes in other spheres too which
we must expect to come. When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social importance, there will be great changes in the
code of morals. We shall be able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles
which have hag-ridd~n us for two hundred years,
by which we have exalted some of the most
distasteful of human qualities into the position
of the highest virtues. We shall be able to
afford to dare to assess the money-motive at its
true value. The love of money as a possession
-as distinguished from the love of money as
a means to the enjoyments and .realities of life
-will be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those semicriminal, semi-pathological propensities which
one hands over with a shudder to the specialists
in mental disease. All kinds of social customs
and economic practices, affecting the distribution of wealth and of economic rewards and
penalties, which we now maintain at all costs,
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION .
PART
however distasteful and unjust they may be in
themselves, because they are tremendously useful in piomoting the accumulation of capital,
we shall then be free, at last, to discard.
Of course there will still be many people
with intense, unsatisfied purposiveness who will
blindly pursue wealth-unless they can find
some plausible ‘substitute. But the rest of us
will no longer be under any obligation to applaud and encourage them. For we shall inquire more curiously than is safe to-day into
the true character of this “purposiveness” with
which in varying degrees Nature has endowed
almost all of us. For purposiveness means that
we are more concerned with the remote future
results of our actions than with their own quality
or their immediate effects on our own environment. The “purposive” man is always trying
to secure a ·spurious and delusive immortality
for his acts by pushing his interest in them forward into time. He does not love his cat, but
his cat’s kittens; nor, in truth, the kittens, but
only the kittens’ kittens, and so on forward for ·
ever to the end of cat-dom. For him jam is
not jam unless it is a case of jam to-morrow
and never. jam to-day. Thus by pushing his
jam always forward into the future, he strives
to secure for his act of boiling it an immortality.
Let me remind you of the Professor in Sylvie
and Bruno:”Only the tailor, sir, with your little bill,” said a
meek voice outside the door.
“Ah, well, I can soon settle his business,” the
V
THE FUTURE
Professor said to the children, “if you ’11 just wait a
minute. How much is it, this year, my man?” The
tailor had come in while he was speaking.
“Well, it’s . been a-doubling so manx years, you
see,” the tailor replied, a little gruffly, ‘and I think
I’d like the money now. It’s two thousand pound,
it is!”
“Oh, that’s nothing!” the Professor carelessly
remarked, feeling in his pocket, as if he always carriecl
at least that amount about with him. “But wouldn’t
you like to wait just another year and make it four
thousand? Just think how rich you’d be! Why, you
might be a liing, if you liked!”
“I don’t know as I’d care about being a king,” the
man said thoughtfully. “But it dew sound a powerful
sight o’ money! Well, I think I’ll wait-”
“Of course you will!” said the Professor. “There’s
good sense in you, I see. Good-day to you, my man!”
“Will you ever have to pay him that four thousand
pounds?” Sylvie asked as the door closed on the
departing creditor.
·
“Never, my child!” the Professor replied emphatically. “He’ll go on doubling it till he dies. You see,
it’s· always worth while waiting another year to get
twice as much money l”
Perhaps it is not an accident that the rac~
which did most to bring the promise of immortality into the heart and essence of our religions has also done most for the princi pie of
compound interest an~ particularly loves this
most purposive of human institutions.
I see us free, therefore, to return to some of
the most sure and certain principles of religion
and traditional virtue-that avarice is a vice,
that the exaction of usury is a misdeineanour,
and the love of money is detestable, that those
372
ESSAYS IN PERSUASION
PART
walk most truly in the paths of virtue and sane
wisdom who take least thought for the morrow.
We shall•,.once more value ends above means
and prefer the good to the useful. We shall
honour those who can teach us how to pluck
the_ hour and the day virtuously and well, the
delightful people who are capable of taking
direct enjoymen£ in things, the lilies of the
field who toil not, neither do they spin.
But beware I The time for all this is not yet.
For at least another hundred years we must pre
tend to ourselves and to every one that fair is
foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair
is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must
be our gods for a little longer still. For only
they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic
necessity into daylight.
I look forward, therefore, in days not so very
remote, to the greatest change which has ever
occurred in the material environment of life for
human beings in the aggregate. But, of course,
it will all happen gradually, not as a catastrophe.
Ind�ed, �t h�s �!ready begu�. The course of
affairs will simply be that there will be ever
larger and larger classes and groups of people
from whom problems of economic necessity
have been practically removed. The critical
difference will be realised when this condition
has become so general that the nature of one’s
duty to one’s neighbour is changed. For it
will remain reasonable to be economically pur
posive for others after it has ceased to be
reasonable for oneself.
V
THE FUTURE
373
The pace at which we can reach our destina
tion of economic bliss will be governed by four
things-our power t� control pop�l�tion., our
determination to avoid wars and c1v1l dissen
sions, our willingness to entrust to science the
direction of those matters which are properly
the concern of science, and the rate of accumula
tion as fixed by the mar&in betwee!1 our })ro
duction and our consumption; of which the last
will easily look after itself, given the first th�ee.
Meanwhile there will be no harm in making
mild preparations for. our. destiny, in enco�rag
ing, and experimenting in, the arts of hfe as
well as the activities of purpose.
.
But chiefly, do not let us overestimate the
impor;ance of the economic problem, or sacrifice
to its supposed necessities other matters of
greater and more permanent si�nificance. It
should be a matter for specialists-like den
tistry. If economists could manage to get them
selves thought of as humble, �ompetent peo�le,
on a level with dentists, that would be splendid I
Select Page
a
The American Myths of the “Self-Made Man,” the American
Dream and Meritocracy
“The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to
believe it.”—George Carlin
The themes of self-reliance and personal responsibility as a means to amassing unlimited success has been
an appealing story for more than a century. The self-made man myth, also described as “The American
Dream” has been linked at various times to Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Horatio Alger
stories. Not only is there little truth in the belief, but this oversimplified story has created an indelible view
that there is neither responsibility nor the need to take care of one another, including those most
vulnerable among us. It’s every person for himself or herself. And many self-help books and gurus have
supplemented the fictional stories by emphasizing the values of independence and taking personal
responsibility.
Movies, TV shows and popular media, and many politicians are reinforcing these myths by arguing and
promoting the notion that anyone can be wealthy or make it to the top by virtue of their hard work and
positive attitude and that’s how successful people did it in the past. We regularly read or hear about
success stories like Bill Gates, Jeff Besos, Michael Dell, Richard Branson, Mark Cuban and a host of others.
And the self-made man myth is alive and well in Silicon Valley, built on the dream of the next killer app or
technological device, where success stories of people like Steven Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg floods the
mainstream media. It’s interesting to note that most “rags-to-riches” success stories are defined in terms of
doing well in business and making lots of money. Yet rarely do we hear about the significant investments
2
and contributions by some if not all of the following people: family, friends, associates, protagonists,
antagonists, advisors, teachers, authors, mentors, coaches, and the list could go on.
The most recent recession in America and subsequent shifts in the global economy have disrupted many
norms, including a realignment of assets and the demand and supply of talent. Along with these
adjustments has been a renewed debate over issues such as the distribution of wealth, the disappearing
middle class and the belief in meritocracy. Some recent experts have reaffirmed a perception that both the
belief in the “self-made man” and the benefits of meritocracy are largely myths and prevent leaders from
dealing with the serious problems of economic inequality, and social mobility.
Movies, TV shows and popular media, and many politicians are reinforcing these myths by arguing and
promoting the notion—by idolizing wealthy people, such as Silicone Valley “Wunderkind,” famous
celebrities, movie stars and professional athletes–that anyone can be wealthy or make it to the top by virtue
of their hard work and positive attitude and that’s how successful people did it in the past. If this were true,
we wouldn’t see a virtual explosion of people buying lottery tickets, and governments using lotteries as a
significant source of revenue.
The “Self-Made” Man Myth and the American Dream
A “self-made man” (later expanded to include “self-made women”) is a classic phrase first coined on
February 2, 1832 by United States senator Henry Clay who referred to the self-made man in the United
States senate, to describe individuals in the manufacturing sector whose success lay within the individuals
themselves, not with outside conditions.
Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, has been described as the greatest
exemplar of the self-made man. Inspired by Franklin’s autobiography, Frederick Douglass developed the
concept of the self-made man in a series of lectures that spanned decades starting in 1859. Originally, the
term referred to an individual who arises from a poor or otherwise disadvantaged background to eminence
in financial, political or other areas by nurturing qualities, such as perseverance, hard work, and ingenuity,
as opposed to achieving these goals through inherited fortune, family connections, or other privileges. By
the mid-1950s, success in the United States generally implied “business success”.
2
Horatio Alger’s words and quotes have often been used to reinforce the pioneering, go-it-alone, rugged
heroism associated with early America. And by extension, his words have been co-opted to reinforce the
idea that all Americans have a personal responsibility to themselves, for themselves. But the same sage who
once said, “Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you,” also said, “Make yourself necessary to
somebody.” Similarly in Ragged Dick, and many of the other stories penned by Horatio Alger, a young boy
(Dick) was able to “pull himself up by his bootstraps” to achieve the American Dream despite a dire situation
facing him. The “Horatio Alger Story” is one of the predominant and lasting American narratives.
The only problem is that many have reinterpreted this, and other stories like it, in such a way as to lose
much of the original meaning. They are now used to suggest a literal “rags to riches” story where, through
sheer hard work and determination, one can amass great wealth and success. What is lost is a concern for
others that was always a central theme in his stories. The net definition of success wasn’t extreme wealth,
but a middle-class place in society and a good reputation.
“A lot of Americans think the US has more social mobility than other western industrialized countries,”
explains Michael Hout, a sociology professor at New York University and the study’s author. “This makes it
abundantly clear that we have less.” Previous research used occupation metrics that relied on averages to
gauge social status across generations. This dynamic, also called “intergenerational persistence,” is the
degree to which one generation’s success depends on their parents’ resources. While these studies showed
a strong association between parental occupation and intergenerational persistence, they understated the
significance of parents’ jobs on the status of their children.
‘Middle points’ reveal more than averages
2
The findings, which appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveal a more powerful
link as they rely on data that use medians, or middle points, as opposed to average socioeconomic status, in
gauging occupations. Additionally, in almost all Horatio Alger stories, the protagonist is aided by a small
coterie of friends and strangers who help make his success possible. The themes of self-reliance and
personal responsibility as a means to amassing unlimited success is no doubt an appealing story. But it is a
simplified narrative that has created an indelible impression among many Americans that there is neither
responsibility nor the need to take care of one another, including those most vulnerable among us.
American Dream
The term American Dream was first used in James Truslow Adam’s 1931 best selling book, The Epic of
America. Adams define the concept as “the dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and
fuller for every man, with an opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.”
In her book, , Facing up to the American Dream, Jennifer Hochschild identified four tenets of the American
Dream:
1. Everyone regardless of origin or status can attain the American Dream.
2. The American Dream is a hopefulness for success.
3. The American Dream is possible through actions that are under the individual’s direct control.
4. Because of the associations of success and virtue, the American Dream comes true.
2
Meritocracy
The term meritocracy is defined as a society that rewards those who show talent and competence as
demonstrated by past actions or competitive performance.The meritocratic ideals that were to inform
French and American revolutionary periods had their origin in Confucian values that were instituted in
Chinese civilizations such as the Han Dynasty. These social reforms were taken in order to displace a ruling
class based upon family inheritance, with civil bureaucracy based upon merit, as demonstrated through
educational attainment, competitive examinations and performance of one’s duties once appointed.
Meritocratic ideals were eventually adopted by European Enlightenment thinkers (e.g., Voltaire) in efforts to
reconstitute the social order beyond the confines of the ancient regime, and the more quotidian
applications of meritocracy in Europe and the United States were used in the civil services as protective
measures against corruption and political favoritism.
The U.S. is viewed by most of its citizens as a “land of opportunity.” According to this belief, anyone who
comes to America have the opportunity to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” and succeed as long as
they work hard and persevere. Those who are most worthy of America’s bounty are the meritorious. This
social ideal promulgates the belief that, “those who are the most talented, the hardest working and the
most virtuous get and should get the most rewards,” argue S. McNamee and R. Miller, in their book, The
Meritocracy Myth.
The term “Meritocracy” was first used in Michael Young’s 1958 satirical book, Rise of Meritocracy, which
describes a dystopian future in which one’s social place was determined by IQ and effort. Young described a
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society where those at the top of the system ruled autocratically with a sense of righteous entitlement while
those at the bottom of the system were incapable of protecting themselves against the abused leveled by
the merit elite above. The meritocracy was cruel and ruthlessness. Today, meritocracy is often used with a
positive connotation to describe a social system that allows people to achieve success proportionat
