The ideal of meritocracy, then, confuses two different concerns. One is a matter of efficiency; the other is a question of human worth. If we want people to do difficult jobs that require talent, education, effort, training, and practice, we are going to need to be able to identify candidates with the right combination of talent and willingness to exert themselves, and provide them incentives to train and practice. So we design schools and universities, and select people to fill the places in them. If the institutions are working properly, they aren’t merely handing out credentials (which is
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