'This book flips your world upside down. Daniel Markovits argues that meritocracy isn't a
virtuous efficient system that rewards the best and brightest. Instead it rewards middle-class
families who can afford huge investments in their children's education ... Frightening
eye-opening stuff' The Times Books of the Year Even in the midst of runaway economic
inequality and dangerous social division it remains an axiom of modern life that meritocracy
reigns supreme and promises to open opportunity to all. The idea that reward should follow
ability and effort is so entrenched in our psyche that even as society divides itself at
almost every turn all sides can be heard repeating meritocratic notions. Meritocracy cuts to
the heart of who we think we are. But what if both up and down the social ladder meritocracy
is a sham? Today meritocracy has become exactly what it was conceived to resist: a mechanism
for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations.
Upward mobility has become a fantasy and the embattled middle classes are now more likely to
sink into the working poor than to rise into the professional elite. At the same time
meritocracy now ensnares even those who manage to claw their way to the top requiring rich
adults to work with crushing intensity exploiting their expensive educations in order to
extract a return. All this is not the result of deviations or retreats from meritocracy but
rather stems directly from meritocracy's successes. This is the radical argument that The
Meritocracy Trap prosecutes with rare force comprehensive research and devastating
persuasion. Daniel Markovits a law professor trained in philosophy and economics is better
placed than most to puncture one of the dominant ideas of our age. Having spent his life at
elite universities he knows from the inside the corrosive system we are trapped within as
well as how we can take the first steps towards a world that might afford us both prosperity
and dignity.
