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On Meritocracy

    Many people operate under the idea that "if you put the effort in, you get/should get the rewards". This is wrong, and just another subtle form of primacy of consciousness - the premise that consciousness precedes existence.

    A reward is just a good thing you have earned - which means you either created it yourself, or traded with someone else for value you created. Creating value usually - not always - requires effort, but effort by itself creates nothing.

    It's pretty hard to grow food. Whether you're doing it by working the ground yourself, or by designing new ways to produce it in a more efficient manner, chances are you will have to put a lot of time and effort into it. However, merely digging around, shifting dirt from one place to the other, will get you absolutely nothing.

    What creates value is rational thought put into action. You understand how a thing works, think of ways to make it work better, and act to make that idea real. What creates the value is the nature of the actions you have taken - the way existence "reacts" to them. The value itself is a result of the way you changed what already there into something else, more useful.

    Assuming that effort entitles you to value is a reversal of the relationship between the mental and the physical. It is assuming that one of the mental consequences of rational work (effort) is what shapes the consequences of that action in reality (value).

    The idea that hardworking people should get "their fair share", meaning a good life, is completely bogus. People who produce value, deserve the value they produce, regardless of the effort they put in. People who work hard, yet create no value, are merely wasting their time.

  -  January 31st, 2020

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