Hacker News
points by anovikov 13 hours ago | 0 comments
It's hard to comment on the lunacy of this. Elite is important, but whether it is educated or not is about whether or not they still see it as beneficial, whether it is still regarded as valuable among the elite society, and more importantly, on whether the universities still let them in (because intellectually they are on average of course, average, especially when elites mostly marry their peers). But the elite still remains the elite - that does not depend on degrees, but on wealth and social standing. Society should strive to keep them educated in the next generation and banning of legacy admissions is a step in wrong direction: it results in uneducated elite, which definitely makes everyone worse off.
[–] mdp2021 12 hours ago
"Elite" means "the best" ("the selected") - not the ironical take you have assumed. Here, the point is whether those who take the slots that should be reserved to an elite proper actually are elite proper. While many get said slots from "wealth and social standing", others get them from non-exportable (non-indicative in administrative jobs) success in business and political communication (the ability to get elected does not indicate a best candidate for administration).

The poll of those who will take them slots is larger than those of the "wealth and social standing". So, the strategy to get some "educated elite" is larger. And the concern includes both the quality of education and its distribution.

> universities

We have to act already before the primary school level, as the societies I know show.

[–] anovikov 10 hours ago
I believe that elites are just that: elites. You don't really become an elite until the particular reasons and ways in which your ancestors first became one, are lost in history or at least become irrelevant.
[–] mdp2021 7 hours ago
You have used a tautology. And you have assumed that those who climb to some position are strongly enabled by ancestors in the family - which is false.

Since rise to any power in general can be too easy, the attempt must be made to make everyone as little dangerous as possible - they all may rise.

[–] anovikov 6 hours ago
Those who rise do not; but elites are not rising anywhere, they just sit there.