539 Redistribute Opportunity

[Speaker to Animals]

So institute a no-nepotism policy at Speaker Inc., and refuse in your personal business to do business with firms that don't have such a policy.

Otherwise, what do you propose that "we" do about it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonic_Party

Ain't nothing new under the Sun.

I propose we start exposing these buggers. Shine a light on them. Ridicule them. Affirmative action. Ivy League connections. Whatever people used to get a leg-up in a professional career that has little to do with qualifications for the job.

Just make nepotism so repugnant that nobody will want to do it so openly. Might have a nice side effect of removing the Ivy League racket from power.

[Speaker to Animals]

Or you could do something like the opposite of nepotism. Never hire Ivy Leaguers. Never hire people who are relatives of anybody in your management.

The problem is too many people shrug at nepotism. So nobody feels shame about it. Thus it spreads. History shows that as soon as people start talking about it, it's ability to extend is severely limited.

The biggest problem with nepotism of all kinds is the inherent power structure it creates. If you got your position through nepotism, you have a reciprocating obligation to carry the favor to the next person in the nepotistic system you belong to. This creates networks within corporations and governments. This is why we have a deep state.

[Martin Hash]

Aristocracy is the inevitable result of concentration of wealth and opportunity.

The reason there’s no place for me in politics is that I support neither aristocracy nor Marxism.

[Martin Hash]

Apologists for the aristocracy recognize that in a democracy, it leads to Marxism, but their solution isn’t to dismantle the aristocracy, it’s to dismantle democracy.

[Fife]

Or you could do something like the opposite of nepotism. Never hire Ivy Leaguers. Never hire people who are relatives of anybody in your management.

The problem is too many people shrug at nepotism. So nobody feels shame about it. Thus it spreads. History shows that as soon as people start talking about it, it's ability to extend is severely limited.

The biggest problem with nepotism of all kinds is the inherent power structure it creates. If you got your position through nepotism, you have a reciprocating obligation to carry the favor to the next person in the nepotistic system you belong to. This creates networks within corporations and governments. This is why we have a deep state.

I agree with what you are saying.

Actually, lots of firms take active steps to combat nepotism, and don't want to do business with firms that have problems with it.

I could go through quite a few war stories about family businesses that crashed and burned because Sonny came home from UCLA or GW with not much work ethic and a fantastic coke habit.

Other companies flourish and do great work by keeping it all in the family. That bad old "aristocracy," you know.

The market will settle out the good from the bad.

[Martin Hash]

Oh, are the Walton heirs destitute already?

[Fife]

Wherein we are treated to the idea that the Walmart is something *other* than one of the greatest success stories of American ingenuity, risk-taking, and hard ass work.

Sam Walton obviously got ahead because of theft, fraud, white privilege, wage slavery, and fucking over consumers.

"We" need to stomp out those aristocrats, and put in a "distributive" retail superstructure. Who are they to run their business the way they see fit and in the way that makes them the country's biggest employer and makes their customers want to keep coming back?

Or am I missing something?

I think I'll go to the Walmart and buy some stuff after I hit the gym.

[Martin Hash]

Oh, I missed the book about how the Walton heirs did it. You’d think they’d be promoting their meritocracy?

[Speaker to Animals]

Quibble: aristocracy implies merit of some kind. Our aristocracy died precisely because it was inheritance-based and eventually the aristocracy became a weak warrior class that was defeated by frontiersmen and militias made up of farmers.

Aristocracy starts with merit (in our case it started with martial and political prowess) and typically dies centuries later due to nepotism. Aristocracy cannot start with nepotism.

This would be like calling the Deep State an aristocracy and it clearly is not. If they were an aristocracy, they'd need not hide.

Nepotism is not good for anything.

[brewster]

It's not just the aristocrats that hoard opportunity. Just look at the labor & trade unions that have traditionally restricted entry to those with connections. I recently did some maintenance on a Broadway prop and the 20 something numskull "asst propmaster" kid assigned to assist me was only there because his dad was the propmaster and got him in the union, a union with tremendous pay and bennies. You don't walk in off the street for that job! Same with film unions, they're not primarily film school kids but generations of blue collar workers. We like to say kids should be electricians & plumbers, but they restrict the number of licenses by various legal means and "secret answers" on the tests.

I recently heard a story about a kid who was in a film local in LA and moved back to NY to be with family, but couldn't get work because the NY local wouldn't let him in!

Re: Sam Walton- regardless of the relative morality of how the business was built, what do we owe his heirs in perpetuity? Are they literally hereditary capitalist aristocracy? At least old style landed aristos were limited by the land and primogeniture, you'd get one more baron and the other kids would be titled losers whose kids would be commoners like Churchill was. But capitalism knows no bounds, and can grow the capital faster than the family can expand as long as they don't blow it at the casino like many aristocrats did.