Quote from: amincd on July 15, 2011, 03:18:43 AM

Quote from: DamienBlack

A meritocracy is a theoretical concept where everyone gets exactly what they deserve, based on merit alone. Currently, many do not get what they deserve because they find themselves in situations outside their control that limit their ability to move up the social ladder.

Government is not omniscient and is not able to know what role irresponsibility played in a person's poor circumstances rather than bad luck. Providing for the unlucky also means providing for the irresponsible, and this reduces the incentive to behave responsibly, leading to less prosperity overall.

That is a common argument that crops up in many different discussions. We cannot do 'X' perfectly, we make mistakes, those mistakes have negative consequences, so we should not do 'X' at all. Yes, it is true, we cannot do it perfectly. A true meritocracy is unachievable. But we can move closer to one. We can weigh the good and the bad and decide which path to take. The discussion is much deeper than you pretend.

And as to the 'irresponsible' you speak of. I have never met anyone I would call irresponsible. I have certainly never met anyone so irresponsible that I believe they deserve abject poverty. Have you? I've only seen people trying to get by, whatever way they can. I've only seen people that were not equipped with the skills and education needed to make the right choices in life. If these irredeemably 'irresponsible' people exist, they must be few and far between. And what of the rich 'irresponsible'? They can go their whole lives without want, all the while the poor 'irresponsible' live on the streets. How is that fair?

Or are you one of those that believe that the poor 'earned' their position. That is a great story to tell kids -- to hide the awful truth of our unfair world. But surely you can see through such fairytales. It isn't usually 'bad luck' that hold people back, but rather systematic class discrimination. The rich get rich, and the poor get poor, because the rich use their power to arrange it that way. I know the stories, the fairytales, about how poor people that work hard can rise up. But these are just stories. The poor aren't going very far, middle class at best, and it is usually luck and happenstance that helps them rise, not hard work. And even if the stories are true, why do the poor have to work so hard when the rich get it handed to them?

My apologies, I'll get off my soapbox now. Class discrepancy is my issue, my cause. In our society, even the poor believe they've earned their position somehow. It is simply sickeningly unjust.