"Meritocracy"...?

[Jo van]

It seems (to me) that we live in a society where the very wealthy are 'revered', maybe not by you or I, but by "the Media", and far worse, by our Governments.

Tony Blair famously rubbed shoulders with the "A"-List celebrities, when he first came to office, and subsequently appointed people like Lord (*retch*) Alan Sugar, and Lord Levy, who was formerly Alvin Stardust's manager
{The music producer Pete Waterman described him as "the greatest salesman I have ever met. He would be able to sell sand to the Arabs." A popular enough saying, but totally inappropriate to Lord Levy, who has also been described by The Jerusalem Post as "undoubtedly the notional leader of British Jewry"
He wouldn't sell the Arabs anything!}
During the election, Cameron sucked up to the rich for donations.

David Cameron's attempts to detoxify his party are dealt a further blow today with details revealed for the first time of his extensive travel by private jet and helicopter funded by multi-millionaire businessmen.

The Conservative leader has accepted more than 60 flights by luxury plane and helicopter from 10 industrialists and plutocrats with a combined fortune of £3bn, figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.

Many of the flights were for short trips in the UK that could have been easily made by road or rail, although together the air mileage would have taken Mr Cameron to Sydney and back – casting his much-vaunted commitment to the environment in a poor light.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 72817.html
Rich people seem to get the 'ear' of Governments, simply because their companies make money and employ people. And they make DONATIONS!!££$$$£££$$ (See "Lord Ashcroft")
Rupert Murdoch, Abramovich, Deripaska, (sp) Mital, Goldsmith, Rothschild, etc

If you are considered "successful" (Rich) or a "celebrity", you seem to have immediate access directly to government, and your views will be listened to, you may even be appointed an "Advisor"
The "ordinary person" would be lucky to get a reply from their local MP.

But in a democracy, shouldn't the opinion of any one person only carry as much "weight" as the opinions of any other single person...?

We listened to what the "Business Leaders" of the Banks and Financial Institutions said was "needed", and look what happened!

Wealthy people will always tell you, "they got their wealth through hard work", (as if no-one who isn't wealthy ever had to work hard), or they will tell you that they got it because they're clever... Have you ever listened to the "wisdom" of Alan Sugar, or Donald Trump...?

People seem to think that Bill Gates must be a "genius", because he's the richest man in the world, but I remember when Microsoft "won the order" from IBM for DOS, and the circumstances...
No-one knew, when IBM launched their "Microcomputer" (As they used to be known) the "PC"., that it would become the 'de-facto' standard for all other Micro's, it was just sheer luck that the applications began to appear, and others 'cloned' it under license, and it snowballed. It was never 'planned' and it certainly wasn't down to genius, not even 'foresight'...

I'm not sure that wealth is the best indicator of wisdom... (Or any indicator at all)
And even if it were, why should they have any more "say", than any other individual..

I think there's something wrong, it should be the voices of the many that are listened to/catered for,
not the few.....
Just my thoughts, you can shout at me now!

[zangie]

And I thought I was an idealist...lol..

As long as you have a form of government that isn't socialist, and capitalism is allowed/encouraged..you will always have wealthy and famous people who have more power/influe nce...it's just the way it works, money is power, always has been ,always will be...even in the socialist countries, or communist countries...there were/are still those that have more than the general population...and they will be the ones who have the power/control...

Idealism aside JO..I really can't see how you will ever be able to wipe out a lot of people's need to be successful monetarily/and/or powerful...it's how many men, especially, gauge their status...and it is also about security for many...As nice an idea as it seems to be..I just don't see it happening anytime soon..certainly not in our lifetime...

Neither the politicians , nor the wealthy, can risk offending the less wealthy too much either..because they need us...

[Jo van]

Please provide an example of 1 celebrity that gained "immediate" access and where appointed an advisor?

I did, above, Alan Sugar

Entrepreneur and reality television star Sir Alan Sugar has been appointed to the post of enterprise tsar for the government.

http://www.learndirect.co.uk/businessin ... e/3123917/

I have a close relative that was a national director for IBM during that time, and her story is much different that yours.

You haven't heard my story...

Ask her if the OS business was originally going to go to Prolog, but IBM wanted some functionality changes, which Prolog felt would 'compromise' their product. Microsoft were 2nd in line, and had no such reservations (From memory)

What's "Her Story" then...?

[eyeofthecamera]

"Behind every great wealth, is a great crime."

Elitism is the new Fascism. At least with Fascists it used to be easy to spot the uniform. Now you have to look for the privilege.

I wonder how long it will before only rich will be allowed to vote. One could argue that this is already the case, and that modern society is just an illusion of democracy to keep the common folk from being upset.

[Jo van]

So what makes him not the right person for the job?

Is he not qualified?

I can only assume that you have full access to his work experience and have spent time with him and also have a complete understanding of the role and what it takes to do the role that he has been appointed to, because how else would you be able to judge.

Where to begin....
Well, he started "AMS TRAD" (Alan Michael Sugar Trading.....so not at all egotistical! )
Selling cheap "Hi-Fi" and electronics, around the time I first trained as an electronics engineer in the 70's, very big boxes, full of unnecessary lights and switches, but with very small, low-quality Chinese PCB's inside. For me they were the epitome of cr@p!
And as a trained engineer, I would feel duty bound to advise anyone to steer clear of those products, but you know how it goes, it's not really about quality, it's about publicity, something AMS realised very early, if you get enough people familiar with the name, they'll "assume" (or ENOUGH will) that that's because the product must be "good".

When I was a Computer engineer in the mid 80's, in his "wisdom" he launched a dedicated* "Word-Processor", Amstrad PCW 8256, (* meaning that's all it could do, it was an expensive typewriter")

this just showed me what a complete numb-nut he was!
As it was at exactly that time, that the "Multi-functionality" of computers was becoming the key selling point:
Buy one machine, perform hundreds of different applications, using something called "Programs".

In the 90's, when I was working as a Storage Sales Specialist, selling to "The Trade" I had dealings with his company, and the ethos was always to cut costs regardless of reliability/performance. I remember the Court case with Seagate over their products, but many other companies were also using their products, and while I won't say there were no problems, (See "Bleeding-Edge Technology") those other companies flourished, Amstrad did not.

And from a personal POV., I have watched "The Apprentice" and seen his bullying, misogynistic, archaic ideology being imparted on that. I have seen his criticisms of "morality is a weakness" type ethos, and I have seen his choice of applicants, and "Winners", including one who lied about completing exams on his CV., -Sugar forgave that, because he reminded him of himself at that age, ie dishonest!
He also chose a woman who'd just admitted to an affair with friend's husband, because "when she saw something she wanted, she just went for it, and didn't let anything get in the way" or some other such "go-getter" type nonsense.
AMS thought that an admirable quality for business.
From watching that show, I would surmise that AMS "recipe for success in Business" was Lying, cheating, and a total lack of morals.
Perhaps that was all just because it made "good television", but I doubt it. He has made many other public "Gaffes", particularly his views on "a woman's place"...

Is he qualified...?
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sir_Alan_Sugar

Not for anything
IMO

[belinda]

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Alan Sugar:



'Nuff said?

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