Meritocracy vs. Marketocracy

The larger we grow as a population, the more we become distanced from celebrities, brands, and politicians; the more we move away from a meritocracy and into a marketocracy. The winners are not based on merit but on who can be marketed to a mass audience.

I like the idea of cutting off government funded social assistance programs, returning that money to the tax payer, and allowing them to donate to charities that provide those services instead. I like that idea ... in theory.

The problem is that donations don't go to the greatest need but to non profits with the best marketing team. Consider the chart below. Breast cancer is the fourth biggest disease killer in the US but it receives the most donations for research. Heart disease is the biggest killer and only gets the third most donations.

Quick: what do Dan Brown, JK Rowling, and John Grisham have in common? They all wrote the year's best selling novel at some point in the last 20 years. What else do they have in common? None of their books are assigned reading to college students. Marketing, not merit, determines their success.

People liked the idea of Donald Trump as president because he was a successful business person. But his wealth pales in comparison to the much more successful Warren Buffet. But Buffet could never be president because he isn't he showman that Trump is.