I don’t hear it said enough in explicit terms, so it’s worth saying now.
Meritocracy is bad, you should not want it as a leftist.
On top of what you’ve said, I’d add that it’s an op, never true, and the original word is a parody of the idea. Even if it worked in theory, it’s not a good thing.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. That is what we’re aiming for.
You don’t need a hierarchy based on talent to do that. That will erase the thing you’re trying to achieve. People can manage themselves on democratic grounds, more or less.
This isn’t even hypothetical. For a while, the game company Valve operated this way. They voted on each other’s salaries, they had no official titles or bosses. Employees in aggregate are generally pretty good, in a non toxic environment, about evaluating the talent of another employee and coming up with what a fair salary would be.
Workplace democracy might seem like a meme, but it’s a real, practical thing.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. That is what we’re aiming for.
They voted on each other’s salaries, they had no official titles or bosses. Employees in aggregate are generally pretty good, in a non toxic environment, about evaluating the talent of another employee and coming up with what a fair salary would be.
The Valve scenario is a great example of what we should be working for right now, but it’s pretty far from “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” If your coworkers vote you a high salary, they’re doing that more on some meritocratic principle than on consideration of what you need.
Until we’re in a completely post-scarcity society, workplace democracy (combined with the means of decent living guaranteed to everyone) is a better target than “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” A democratic workplace where income is determined by peers gives workers incentives for being more productive, which (at least according to Blackshirts and Reds) was lacking in the USSR. It also acts as a check against the most productive workers turning reactionary.
Don’t support piecework you fucking nerds.
This is such a flawed reddit tier idea by the type of people who don’t support unionizing because of the logic that “it will make it impossible for their bosses to reward their hard work”.
No consulting firm that recommends Amazon/Wallmart/McDonalds implement “accomplishment based compensation” is going to be selling their idea on the basis that it will allow for them to pay more money to their employees for the same amount of productivity.
Also, this would only undermine worker solidarity. Unions must act to protect those in less materially/physically privileged positions. I can easily imagine this sort of compensation would only become an excuse to remove elderly employees, or those experiencing mental/physical health problems. Sure, they can stay working, but only if they are willing to take “minimum salaries for minimum achievements”.
Finally, if there’s one thing I learned from Bullshit Jobs, it’s that so many people don’t work hard because they see their jobs as utterly pointless, if everyone was able to work at least some sort of fulfilling job, or even receive training/freedom if none are available, I guarantee average job satisfaction and productivity would skyrocket. Look no further than the masses of people willing to build railroads without compensation in Sankara’s Burkina Faso to see that.
I read an argument by a sports writer months ago that probably the toughest part of being a pro-athlete, one almost never talked about, is the supersaturation of stats and how they’re treated as though they measure ones entire value. Basically, baseball players get so much self-worth from their WAR, and Ballers from their PPG, that to experience a fall off in one of these stats can be emotionally devastating, particularly because you know it’ll lead to a smaller pay in the future. Meanwhile you have guys like Morey, 538, or Sabermetrics diehards, who really do believe that you can come up with an advanced stat so perfect that it will account for someones entire worth as a player.
No one sympathizes with this painful aspect of being a professional athlete though, because they get paid so high that we don’t think they have a right to complain. But make no mistake, soon there will be a Basketball-reference equivalent for Amazon employees, your pay will be based on what an algorithm spits out, and only then will we be able to emphasize with what having a bunch of numbers determine how million of people value you feels like.
The problem is once you start doing it like this you quickly realize that a lot of positions, especially managerial ones are actually accomplishing jack shit, so then you redefine what accomplishment means so you can preserve the power structure and you’re almost back at square one, only worse. And of course there are positions and tasks that cannot be quantified as easy. I.e. what do you do with r&d which can take long time without producing results. In addition people tend to game the metrics, when they are measured on these metrics.
Bruh you smart as hell. Most managers at my job don’t do as much actual productive work as the really hard working average associates. In terms of raw, physical stuff that actually gets accomplished, it’s not the managers doing the heavy lifting. But at the same time, basing compensation off of accomplishment is problematic. I’m a lot stronger and faster than some of my fellow employees who do the same tasks as me, but it wouldn’t be fair to pay me more just because I do more. I only do more by virtue of my random luck to be a physically fit person. If compensation was based on accomplishment I would not want the old people I work with breaking their backs to keep up with someone like me ya know.
Bruh you smart as hell
I know. My mom told me so :P
The more time passes the more my dislike for managers grows. At best they are overpaid secretaries, most of the time - just the capitalist equivalent of petite lords and nobles. The decision making they do could and should be done by workers.
If compensation was based on accomplishment I would not want the old people I work with breaking their backs to keep up with someone like me ya know.
Old people should be retired and living on a pension, and young people should at least be guaranteed a decent standard of living. That would fix a ton of the problem you’re describing.
