A lot of the comments here seem obsessively focused on Zach Dell. I can understand why, the author is (perhaps unfairly) hard on him. But the rest of the article seems to be ignored completely, and that's where the real meat of the article lies.
We live in a society where more and more institutions, both public and private, are increasingly becoming dominated by personal connections and family wealth. We are seeing this in academia, in government, and in corporations. I missed the memo on when meritocracy became a bad word, but the children of the wealthy and privileged are taking full advantage of meritocracy's retreat.
There is no one solution that will fix everything, just like there doesn't exist any one drug that can cure cancer. But with sustained effort along many different fronts, we can work towards restoring social mobility and equality of opportunity for all.
We live in a society where more and more institutions, both public and private, are increasingly becoming dominated by personal connections and family wealth. We are seeing this in academia, in government, and in corporations. I missed the memo on when meritocracy became a bad word, but the children of the wealthy and privileged are taking full advantage of meritocracy's retreat.
There is no one solution that will fix everything, just like there doesn't exist any one drug that can cure cancer. But with sustained effort along many different fronts, we can work towards restoring social mobility and equality of opportunity for all.