Daily: Is MERITOCRACY a myth?

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2021

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When people end up in a job or position they love, was it because they worked hard in school, or did they just get lucky? Why is the idea of progressing on merit under threat? Is there a way we can modernise it for the 21st century? Should we we even try? Adrian Wooldridge, Political Editor of the Economist and author of its Bagehot column, talks to Ros Taylor about his new book The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World, why Britain is becoming less meritocratic… and how we can make meritocracy work in today’s world. “While America claims to be the ultimate meritocracy, they are fascinated by our own aristocracy” “You need competent people to do the work of the world, and aristocrats are quite often born stupid and lazy” “The Davos class of people at the top are divorced from the rest of society, floating above our meritocratic mechanisms” Presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:17.0	Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.
0:22.0	Phoenix Group is the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business.
0:28.0	Search Phoenix Group living longer.
0:30.0	Pets brings so much joy.
0:32.0	From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa
0:36.7	so give a little love back with dental life from Purina a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so
0:55.3	look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker I'm Ros Taylor. Here you are with enough time and enough smarts to listen to a
1:14.4	podcast about politics and here am I lucky enough to be banging on about politics to you for a
1:19.4	small fee because I love this job. But how did we get here? Is it because we were clever because we were
1:23.5	were clever because we worked hard because our parents sent us to a good school
1:27.6	and made us do our homework because we got a leg up from a family friend
1:31.2	or inherited a bit of cash at the right time.
1:34.2	Did we just get lucky or did we merit it?
1:38.0	With me to talk about this fascinating question is Adrian Waldridge, the Badget columnist at the Economist.
1:44.4	That's the column at the end of the Britain section,
1:46.7	and the author of a new book, The Aristocracy of Talent,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podmasters, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podmasters and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.