Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

Selfishness, Greed and Capitalismhave more of it if we are to move towards a meritocracy.Li and Devine (2011: 12) note that academic sociologistsare ‘exasperated that most politicians and media commentatorsdo not acknowledge that a genuine meritocracyinvolves downward mobility as well as upward mobility onthe basis of merit.’ John Goldthorpe confirms this (Derbyshire2013), saying that Tony Blaircouldn’t see that the only way you can have more upwardmobility in a relative perspective is if you have moredownward mobility at the same time. I remember beingin a discussion in the Cabinet Office when Geoff Mulganwas one of Blair’s leading advisors. It took a long time toget across to Mulgan the distinction between absoluteand relative rates, but in the end he got it. His responsewas: ‘The Prime Minister can’t go to the country on thepromise of downward mobility!’The best-case scenario is one in which there is a greatdeal of fluidity between the classes while earnings in generalincrease with productivity. That is what happened inthe mid to late twentieth century and, if it feels as if socialmobility is now slowing down, it is because that extraordinaryexpansion of white collar work has – inevitably– slowed down. As Philip Collins (2013) writes:The structure of the labour market changed markedlyduring the 20th century. This is the explanation forthe apparent stalling of social mobility. It is telling usnothing more profound than that the rapid growth of182