Bernake's thoughts on meritocracy

"A meritocracy is a system in which the people who are the luckiest in their health and genetic endowment; luckiest in terms of family support, encouragement, and probably, income; luckiest in their educational and career opportunities; and luckiest in so many other ways difficult to enumerate—these are the folks who reap the largest rewards. The only way for even a putative meritocracy to hope to pass ethical muster, to be considered fair, is if those who are the luckiest in all of those respects also have the greatest responsibility to work hard, to contribute to the betterment of the world, and to share their luck with others."-Bernake

Bernake's repeated use of "luck" is interesting. He includes people who are lucky enough to be genetically endowed, saying they should also "share their luck with others". Very often we hear of people who want to pay back having gained from society's support in terms of education and opportunities. Few have declared that since they were 'lucky' enough to be born clever or talented they want to repay such good fortune. In fact many who are genetically endowed and living in a system that singles them out for special nurture may regard it their birthright to special privileges. Hence they may not see the injustice of inequality. So a scholar groomed to take a path charted by his country have no qualms that he enjoys a very comfortable income simply by virtue that he is born smarter than the masses. In fact he may even feel disgruntled when faced with obstacles and feels  that he is entitled to a perfect life.

Inequality in progress arising from differences in family background is looked upon as injustice. As a result support for the disadvantaged families is deemed necessary. Inequality in progress as a result of differences in inherent intelligence, talents or good looks however seems acceptable by the masses whereby the fortunately endowed individuals are deemed to be deserving of better lives. Such being the attitude of society it is no wonder that many such fortunate individuals hardly feel the need to pay back or "share their luck". Perhaps they feel that luck is not given by others but by God to the selected few, hence they don't owe anyone.

I think Bernake's opinion on meritocracy should be disseminated to our school children right from young.