Social Climbing

Ross Douthat of the NY Times wrote a piece on one of the ways in which the American oligarchy retains power. They send their sons and daughters to Harvard, Princeton and Yale to meet, marry and keep the class intact. These institutions use admissions systems that help screen out high-achieving Asians and working class students who do not know how to pad a resume. "That the actual practice of meritocracy mostly involves a strenuous quest to avoid any kind of downward mobility, for oneself or for one's kids, is something every upper-class American understands deep in his or her highly educated bones." (Communist China operates in a similar way.)