David Brooks Says Our Elite Is Talented and Open

I really wanted to ignore David Brooks' piece today, but he was saying excessively silly things in criticizing my friend, Chris Hayes. Specifically, he was responding to the main point of Chris's new book, The Twilight of the Elites, that the elites have become corrupt and inbred.

"I’d say today’s meritocratic elites achieve and preserve their status not mainly by being corrupt but mainly by being ambitious and disciplined."

Is that so? Perhaps Brooks can tell us what Erskine Bowles did for the $335,000 that he earned as a director of Morgan Stanley in 2008. That year might ring a bell, since that was the year that Morgan Stanley was at the center of the financial crisis. It would have gone bankrupt had it not been for a rescue by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Bernanke used his emergency powers to allow Morgan Stanley to become a bank holding company in the middle of the crisis. This gave the bank the protection of the Fed and the FDIC, halting a bank run that would almost certainly have wiped out the bank. Did the stockholders of Morgan Stanley get $335,000 (more than ten times the median wage in 2008) of value out of Erskine Bowles for his work in 2008?

Of course Bowles is not the only member of the elite who does not seem to provide value for his money. Robert Rubin pocketed over $100 million in his role as a top exec at Citigroup even as that bank was spiraling toward bankruptcy, until it also was rescued by the nanny state.

Anyone who has ever been to Washington knows the town is chock full of 6-figure buffoons: people with no obvious skills who manage to get paychecks that are 5-10 times as high as those of people who work for a living. These people are ambitious and disciplined in that they know to avoid saying anything that will jeopardize their paychecks, but it is hard to see anything else that would justify their salaries.

You are the elite
written by Jesus H Christ, July 13, 2012 11:30

Stop pretending you're a coal miner. Didn't you see your friend Chris in the Style Section? And he's the son of Richard Wilbur!!! Holy Fff!...

The only fight we see is between the part of the elite with some sense of responsibility and the the part with none.

You are from the streets, you are what they made you.
The streets of Swarthmore.
Ph.D? Post hole digger?

I read you every day. Keep up the good work

The More Elite
written by James, July 14, 2012 12:47

In the elite world, it proves the formula what it takes to acheive success in life - three things.

What you know, how much you know, and who you know.

In truth, the first two actually don't count.

Anyone think W could have such a sweetheart deal in buyig and making a profit from Rangers deal? Avoiding Vietnam? on his own?

Chelsea Clinton be a board member of a large multi-national in late 20's?

Free Market Where is Thy Sting? Nanny State Sonnet for the Rich #5,691
written by Last Mover, July 14, 2012 6:28

I fear no death from the sting of free markets
for I am elite who only pockets

the take from markets that do my bidding
through Citizens United with unlimited rigging

Ask not what you can do for free market believers
Ask what your market can do for wheeler dealers

Block competition with monopoly ammunition
Replace regulations with more regulations

the ones that let the rich live off the nanny state
Free markets are for others as a matter of fate

...
written by dick c, July 14, 2012 7:30

For those who want to know just what it is they need to say, or avoid saying, to secure their place, there are Brooks' columns as handy guides. That must be what they're there for.

Typo?
written by David, July 14, 2012 9:28

Meritocracy? Or mediocracy [government by the mediocre via media]?

...
written by JSeydl, July 14, 2012 9:38

A lot of it, I'd argue, is a result of mom and dad, who gave the elites the power they currently hold. Of course, mom and dad got their power from their parents, so it's sort of an ongoing cycle.

One thing you can do, though, is jack up the estate tax (very high) to limit intergenerational wealth transfers. But how do you limit "connection" transfers. Say Mitt Romney uses his connections to get one of his sons into HBS, at the same time that other, more qualified applicants are applying. How do you prevent that? There's no tax mechanism that would prevent Mitt from getting his son's foot in the door. You would hope that the HBS admissions staff would be honest, but not when the school is primarily funded by wealthy donors, like Mitt. I don't know that a true meritocracy will ever be possible because of this problem.

No contradiction
written by Calgacus, July 14, 2012 9:30

"I’d say today’s meritocratic elites achieve and preserve their status not mainly by being corrupt but mainly by being ambitious and disciplined."

There's no contradiction there. "Today’s meritocratic elite" like Bowles needed much discipline to achieve their ambition to be corrupt. :-)

Can't the NYT get rid of him?
written by jaime, July 15, 2012 1:52

What a pathetic op-ed. What exactly is he contributing to our collective analysis? Other than inciting indignation. Fire him and hire Bill Black. http://www.capitalismwithoutfa...trust.html

The non-elite, 99%
written by Innocent Victim, July 15, 2012 3:07

What is not much written is the nature of the non-elite and how that nature gets them the short end of the stick. Briefly, most are very poorly educated, a deficiency they enhance through addiction to popular entertainment and other forms of escapism and media control. In order for consent to be manufactured, as Noam Chomsky, titled one of his books, there must be an electorate that is gullible, an electorate whose prejudices and bad judgments can be turned against their best interests. Chinese peasants are a greater threat to the Peoples' Central Committee than are US voters to the ruling elite in our country. So - which country has a more responsive government, China or the USA?

...
written by PeonInChief, July 16, 2012 9:37

Didn't the Protestant Elite bring us the Great Depression?

I'm always amazed at the lack of basic thinking that goes into his pieces. It's as though he just dictates his shower ruminations into a tape recorder.

Meritocratic elites?
written by BH in MA, July 16, 2012 10:03

He's kidding, right? In a true meritocracy young people would be attending college based on test scores, not income levels. But if you look at the data the highest scoring of the poor attend college at lower rates than the lowest scoring group among the wealthy. So the LEAST talented among the wealthy will have access to higher paying careers while the MOST talented among the poor won't be able to get their foot in the door. There is a huge amount of untapped potential in this country and the false idea that we live in a meritocracy is one of the main reasons.

...
written by Eclectic Obsrvr, July 16, 2012 12:54

I didn't like the comparison about the French and American Revolutions. I've not read the Hayes book but what I do know is that the American Revolution only changed the political schema as opposed to the French Revolution which changed the political, economic and theological schema. So if the idea is to worry about the entrenchment of elites an American Revolution as model is not the way to go.

David Brooks Says Our Elite Is Talented and Open

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