Meritocracy: A Distributive Justice System

Personally, I believe that fair distribution has many factors. While I believe that a meritocratic society makes sense in terms of who gets what, it is more complex than that based off of where many Americans start as opposed to others. The playing field is not leveled by any means which is why meritocracy as a whole does not fully make sense. What I mean by this is that people born in impoverished parts of America are not given the same opportunities as those in upscale parts of America. When Brian gave our class a presentation, I learned that a lot of minorities in these types of areas are put into a cycle that is very tough to break. The cycle starts with a family in poverty, it then leads to a child growing up in poverty. This child is

People deserve what they work for but some have advantages over others. While affirmative action was meant to take care of the such discrepancies, these problems still exist and show no real signs of weakness. In episode 9 of the Harvard lectures, John Rawls discusses the issues of distributive justice in terms of affirmative action. Rawls argues that distributive justice is a matter of moral dessert. Another reason why I believe meritocracy has its flaws is because of the current wealth disparity in the United States. I feel that the upper 1% of America has too much money and the fact that the average CEO makes more than 300 times what his/her average (not lowest paid) worker makes is too much. Some can make the argument that this is just because the CEO had to work to get where he/she is. While this is mostly true and I believe that the CEO of a company should be making a lot more than the average employee I feel that over 300 times is too far extreme. A counter argument (which I do not agree with) to the poverty cycle could be that it is only a theory and is exaggerated because those who are impoverished could work hard enough in school and make it

I feel that the individual is overrun by the community. The community dictates the individual through one thing that everyone (in essence) is striving for, money. The individual quest for money to first live off of then be able to spend on yourself is dictated by the community. I personally feel that this is very wrong. This is not anything new, however the individual 's role has changed. Now with tools such as the internet, each individual can be more informed than ever and can make a difference in the world; spreading their thoughts and ideals with others and forming small sub-communities. As the world becomes more and more intertwined with the addition of so much community, it is becoming more distant and individual with so many different types of individual thoughts, beliefs, and different