In The Meritocracy Trap, Daniel Markovits indicts America’s class system—a structure whose current incarnation disguises itself as a meritocracy, not an aristocracy. The Yale Law professor confesses to be a meritocrat, the product of professional parents and ivy-covered universities. Unlike the leisured rich of old, today’s technocratic elite are workaholics, chained to jobs whose ramifications include the shrinking middle class. As Markovits reminds us, before the ’80s, McDonald’s wasn’t necessarily a dead end. Nowadays, they employ half as many people, and demands for living wages are answered by threats of ever greater automation. Faced with diminished opportunity, the alienated masses fall prey to demagogues spewing false promises. “A more equal society benefits everyone,” Markovits concludes. Reform will require “a comprehensive adjustment—to government, private associations, cultural habits and individual consciousness.” It could take a century.
