> The rise of a Henry Ford, from farm boy mechanic to world business tycoon, seems virtually impossible today, as even America’s most successful college dropouts such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg often turn out to be extremely well-connected former Harvard students.
I find the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg examples poorly chosen. Silicon Valley is probably one of the few remaining industries that largely resembles a meritocracy in America. There are countless cases of people succeeding despite lacking a formal/prestigious education or having the right connections.
Can you give a few of those examples? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I do have this (possibly unwarranted) feeling that most of the supposedly unconnected people succeeding in the startup world today at least have wealthy parents allowing them to work full-time on their startup ambitions without worrying about a job.
Exactly. This is true for a lot of careers, eg. acting. It's a lot harder to risk everything pursuing your dream if you know there's no safety net when things don't work out.
I completely agree with you. These are examples (Zuckerberg a more pure example than Gates) of Harvard having chosen well based on merit. At least, in retrospect, it is easy to say this.
On the contrary, these examples seem well chosen. If it is true that the elite is essentially a closed society that looks after its own, while trying to maintain the illusion that a meritocracy is still in operation, then you would expect a certain number of people of modest background to make it into the ranks of the millionaires (thus providing the material for the "success stories" in the media), but none at all into the ranks of the billionaires.
I find the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg examples poorly chosen. Silicon Valley is probably one of the few remaining industries that largely resembles a meritocracy in America. There are countless cases of people succeeding despite lacking a formal/prestigious education or having the right connections.