Merit-based career ladders face deliberate technical barriers to upward mobility.
Evidence
What Moses admired in the British civil service was that it had two separate and distinct classes: a very small administrative and policy-making “upper division” reserved for “university men,” and a much larger “lower division” consisting of “clerks of ordinary education” selected through examinations on the high-school level who “do the lower and more mechanical work.” The class differentiation that Moses admired was a rigid one. Carefully placed technical hurdles made it difficult, almost impossible, for a young man, even one of dedication, industry, ambition and talent, to rise out of the lower division. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 234
Categorization
- XREF: Pairs with scholarship on credential barriers and class reproduction; also prefigures Moses’s later merit-system rhetoric in public authorities. — connects to: Tech meritocracy discourse masks a narrow demographic and behavioral mold — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 46; Tech’s meritocracy rhetoric contradicts its actual demographics and practices — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 645; Some workers believe upward mobility depends on personal internal conviction. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2177 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Tech’s meritocracy rhetoric contradicts its actual demographics and practices
#corroborates(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 645 - The meritocracy myth masks structural inequality and justifies tech wealth
#corroborates(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 673 - Tech scene meritocracy claims mask the need for preexisting elite networks
#corroborates(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 204 - Tech meritocracy discourse masks a narrow demographic and behavioral mold
#corroborates(0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 46 - Some workers believe upward mobility depends on personal internal conviction.
#qualifies(0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2177 - Worker skills exceeding their rank threaten the enterprise’s legitimacy
#expands(0.75) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 893 - Rationalized personnel systems may become too complex for superiors to exploit.
#corroborates(0.70)