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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 2, 2024

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You misunderstand. I’m not proposing some kind of ultra-authoritarian society in which a caste-based profession system is legally mandated and in which people are required to marry within a profession.

I’m proposing a society that looks a lot like our own, with the sole difference that the expectation of heredity is the default principle in employment. That is to say that there is no law barring children of non-doctors from medical school, but that it would be normal and expected for, say, 80% of medical school students to be the children and/or grandchildren of doctors, and it would be seen as peculiar and strange for someone with no family connection to seek to join the profession, and they would face a tougher time applying (because the 80% would mostly go on to practice in the same areas as their parents, joining their hospitals and practices).

That highly ambitious and smart people of humble origin will make their way in the world has always been true, and it’s a great thing. There would be nothing to prevent someone smart starting a business, making money, and then paying or persuading someone in the professions to take on their child as an apprentice banker, or corporate lawyer, or doctor for that matter. Maybe your childhood best friend comes from a family of engineers, and becomes one too, so you send your own that-way-inclined child to follow that path with his (official) recommendation. These things are all good and normal. What is not normal is the masses being forced into the rat race for no real reason, forced to become grasping, desperate people in search of a profession.

Most people are happier with a path in life than with the endless (and mostly unrealized) possibilities of meritocracy. And they matter more than a few ultra-ambitious psychos who we have geared our entire society around allowing to ‘ascend’ to MIT and then Wall Street / FAANG via two decades of sorting.

I see, that sounds much more reasonable, apologies for misunderstanding.

I still can't quite get behind the idea due to details that I won't bother explaining too much (the most important one being that I would hate having "a path" laid out to me, especially if it was my father's), but I can certainly understand why someone could think like you. Either way, thanks for explaining!

No problem, it’s always an interesting question.