Adrian Wooldridge's provocative book, The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World tells the interesting story of how the world moved from a system of privilege to one based on merit. We often forget that even less than 100 years ago your success was measured by your station and not your talent.
The world adaptation to a merit-based system has been a boom for productivity, economic advancement, and success. Your success was not based on your name but on your actions. Think of all who were talented but denied access to economic opportunities. A system based on intelligence and skill created a unique ladder for many to climb.
We would not be as successful as a world without the focus on merit, yet the meritocracy system may have reached an extreme that has a dark side. A merit system focused on the wrong measures can lead to a new ruling elite based on credential that serve as new barriers to entry. IQ and other aptitude tests have created a barrier to entry. A world based on merit test scores can misallocate resources to score taking and not innovation or hard work. A world sorted between merit haves and have not can also be restrictive. Hence, a world based on "talent" may be subject to problems seen in history that stifles creativity and innovation. A meritocracy is subject to corruption no different than other systems of privilege.
So how do we find a happy medium between merit, equity, and equality? The solution may be through redefining and rethinking merit with a movement away from one single measure of talent. Merit is not a test or a ticket from a school, but a broader measure based on hard work with a sense of empathy and equity for others.
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