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 The Lie: Successful people are better

"There is this viewpoint that if you have a working class background you have come from nothing, whereas the middle and upper classes are something... I think the working class is something. It is everything. They are the builders of society and without them the whole house falls down" -Billy Connelly

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The idea that success is solely based on individual talent and hard work is a lie.

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Meritocracy in society doesn’t exist. The most important jobs are often not being done by the most capable people. They're done by those who are the best connected and are in the elite network. ​

 

This system parachutes people undeserving into positions of power and wealth they wouldn’t never have been able to achieve on merit.​ For the rest of us, it is easier to believe in meritocracy than to face the truth that the system is rigged. The harsh reality is that no matter how hard we work, getting to the top is almost impossible to achieve.

Elite education & its over-represention in top positions

There is an overrepresentation of people with elite education within politics and the media. While only 7% of the UK population is privately educated, almost 50% if journalists and MPs were. And private education gives an easier paths to elite universities.  Oxford and Cambridge graduates dominate politics, business and journalism. Almost every UK Prime Minister attended Oxbridge universities. 

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But why does this over-representation exist? Is it because those that attended these elite institutions are inherently better at these types of jobs? 

 

If meritocracy truly existed, private schools wouldn't be necessary because those who are at the top of business, journalism or politics would have got to their position anyway due to their talent and hard work. As private schools exist currently, they deny those who come from families with fewer means who are hard working and talented opportunities that they can’t get in the door of. Is this an acceptable justification for their existence?

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A former Government "social mobility tsar" admitted social mobility does not exist and that working class people should not aim for elite universities. This, as we have shown, can have implications for people for the rest of their lives and contributes the unbalanced representation in various professionals as discussed.

The myth of "self made" success

“Starting from the bottom” is the exception, not the rule. A 2024 report showed that all billionaires under 30 inherited their wealth.

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None of the billionaires we know from the media are truly “self made” or started from nothing. Of those in the Sunday Times Rich List that were educated in the UK, 57% were privately educated. Also:

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  • Elon Musk is from an extremely wealthy family. His dad owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa​

  • Bill Gates was part of American upper class, him mum knew the CEO of IBM and asked him for investment

  • Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson were privately educated and came from wealth

  • Jeff Bezos received £300,000 from his dad to start Amazon

  • Warren Buffet's dad was a congressman and owned an investment company.

The privileged are delusional

Those born in money and handed all the opportunities to achieve anything they want often seem deluded into thinking their privilege was not a huge advantage.

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While there is no doubt that many privileged people work hard, those with a significant head start in life can be more confident that their hard work will yield success. They have the luxury of trying and failing knowing they have a safety net. Meanwhile the rest of us literally cannot afford to take the risk.

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There is nothing wrong with being privileged, obviously. But this group should acknowledge they may have had access to opportunities than those less privileged. Furthermore, they have no right to lecture those who weren’t born into the aristocracy how they should live their lives, or the reason for their lack of success is a lack of work ethic or intelligence. Take, for example journalist Sophia Money-Coutts who is bemoaning the work ethic of Gen Z compared to herself, a "hustler" who is also the daughter of Baron. 

The British establishment... the worst people doing the most important jobs

Failing upwards is one of the benefits of being part of the British establishment. 

If you have generational wealth and contacts, you can pretty much do anything. 

 

  • Boris Johnson, sacked from jobs in journalism and politics for lying. Despite this, he still became Prime Minister

  • Cressida Dick. Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Made numerous mistakes, including ordering the shooting of an innocent man for no reason. Catalogue of failures throughout her career yet was continuously promoted. 

  • Dido Harding, former TalkTalk boss, was in charge of one of the biggest data leak in British history. Despite this failure, she was awarded a big COVID job by friend Matt Hancock to head the £38 billion Track and Trace service. This decision was found to be illegal as due process was not followed. This was not investigated by Parliament’s anti-corruption champion John Penrose MP. Coincidentally, John Penrose and Dido Harding are married. Despite Track and Trace being another failure and immense waste of money, Harding was promoted to head of Public Health England. 

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