The Crisis of Competence

Elites do not suffer from the consequences of their failures, and so the masses clamor for reform.

The U.S. is in a crisis of legitimacy.

Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 on an unexpected upswell of populist sentiment. The alternative, Hillary Clinton, was seen as corrupt and self-serving. A change in the direction of the country was in order. To some, this was a moment of triumph, a sign that things may change. To others, this was a moment of despair, a sign of trials and tribulations to come.

After four politically chaotic years and the socially chaotic year of 2020, the election of Joe Biden was heralded as a return to normalcy. The adults were back in charge. However, such promises did not align with reality.

Over the course of these past four years, food prices increased 25%, housing prices increased 47%, and inflation raged at 9%. Instead of addressing this clear decline in standards of living, our elites dismissingly tell us that "you will own nothing, and you will be happy." This dystopian promise appears to be more inevitable with every passing day.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration unilaterally implemented a policy of open borders by refusing to enforce immigration laws. Since 2020, over 8 million individuals, many of whom are military age males from countries of interest such as China, Iran, and Russia, have entered America via illegal channels. Venezuelan gangs are proliferating across the US. Nearly 6% of Haiti’s entire population has relocated to the US while retaining special payments from American taxpayers through the federal government and non-profits profiting from the open borders policy.

Those who oppose this policy of open borders that was implemented without a single vote cast are labeled a racist and a bigot.

The Biden Administration’s performance on foreign affairs follows same the pattern of incompetence and idiocy. Kabul fell in three days, not 90. Russia will likely maintain its hold over large swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine despite the over $100 billion dollars in aid sent by the American taxpayers. Iranian-backed jihadi militants have shut down the Red Sea shipping lanes for the past year, but not for Chinese or Russian vessels. The Pax Americana is over, and with it the entire system of globalization and commerce. We are running on fumes.

The U.S. is no longer a meritocracy but a neo-aristocracy. This is why, despite their sheer incompetence and corruption, ruling elites never experience consequences for their actions.

Every great civic virtue is founded upon a myth. It is an aspiration. It is propagandized. It is not reality. However, it is useful for society for it orients society towards a specific goal. The foundation myth of American elites is the myth of meritocracy.

For generations, Americans were raised to believe that no matter the status of a person’s birth, ethnicity, or religion, it was possible to rise through the ranks of society to achieve great things. Yet, the hallmark of American elites today is corruption and incompetence.

Many who still believe in the myth of meritocracy attempt to argue that there is still upward mobility in the U.S. Furthermore, they attempt to argue that since 70% of wealthy families lose their wealth in two generations and 90% lose it in three generations, the meritocracy must somehow still persist. However, does the presence of elite turnover mean that a meritocracy is present? How many noble families rose and fell in three generations during 15th Century England? Even in pre-Revolutionary France, the bankruptcy and demise of great families was no rare occurrence.

What makes a meritocracy a meritocracy is determined by two factors: the ability of ruling elites to lose and the methods by which elites obtain prestige.

To illustrate, consider a game of poker with four quadrants: you have a good hand played well, a bad hand played well, a good hand played poorly, and a bad hand played poorly. Obviously, the person dealt a good hand who plays it well is going to walk away a winner almost every time while the person who is dealt a bad hand and plays it poorly is going to have a tough time of things. Life is no different. The tail ends of society tend to have radically divergent outcomes.

The common misperception of meritocracy is it allows for a person with a bad hand and play it well to move up the social hierarchy. While a meritocracy does make this outcome more likely, that is not its hallmark. People from ordinary backgrounds have always risen to prominence. Even the Roman Empire watched several men start as lowly legionnaires and rise through the ranks to become Emperor. The indicator of a meritocracy is defined by the ability of those who have been dealt the perfect hand to play it poorly and lose. It is when elites face consequences for their incompetence and are forced to move down the social hierarchy.

The challenge in America is elites have rigged the game so that they can never lose. There is never any accountability for their actions no matter how bad they screw up. They only fail upwards. Is there any other interpretation for why Wall Street executives continued to receive multi-million bonuses in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis or why Obama refused to levy any charges against those responsible for the greatest financial catastrophe since the Great Depression?

No longer is America ruled by the competent, but by the credentialed sycophants. What matters for ruling elites is not a person’s competency and capabilities but whether or not they are “the right kinds of people.” Would the young lady from Fayetteville with a 130-IQ who stays home to go to school at Arkansas State be granted the same opportunities as the young man from urban Chicago with a 100-IQ admitted into Yale for being underprivileged? Of course not.

Success in America is increasingly determined by one’s credentials and branding, not by one’s merits. It is for this reason that the social order may be described as a neo-aristocracy for it is the American university system, supposedly the great symbol of liberal egalitarianism, that is the source of these modern titles of nobility.

For over a decade, the overwhelming majority of students currently attend college, not to further their knowledge of a particular subject, but to increase their earning potential. Meanwhile, universities are becoming increasingly centered, not around the goal of teaching, but around attracting research grants that can be turned into patents. This incongruence of interests creates a system which works for university faculty and for the students of the most prestigious institutions but condemns everyone else to a fate of indentured servitude in the form of student loan debt.

The median student loan debt is around $25,000 while the median salary of a college graduate is only $55,000. Compare this to the expectation of the average college student expecting to make six figures straight of the college. When new graduates enter the workforce, this rude awakening is often a moment of radicalization. These individuals soon become the shock troops for those wishing to overturn the status quo for their own benefit. The system is a feature, not a fluke.

Furthermore, while student loan debt has grown from $187 billion in 1995 to $1.77 trillion in 2023, the size of university administrations and endowments are disproportionately skyrocketing. From 1976 to 2018, full-time administrative and other university jobs ballooned by 164% and 452% whereas student populations only increased by 78%. Meanwhile, 132 universities in the U.S. commanded endowments of over $1 billion in 2022.

Just like in Washington, the leaders of American universities advance their own self-interests at the expense of the people they supposedly serve. Universities no longer teach students how to think but what to think. Universities used to challenge their students to consider the practical applications of ideas but now ask “I get how it works in practice, but how does it work in theory?” The Ivory Tower is literally training the next generation of American leaders to divorce themselves from the real-world consequences of their actions. Because of their position at the top of the social hierarchy, American elites have the luxury of indulging in this kind of thinking. Elite power, wealth, and prestige provides insulation from the consequences of their own bad ideas.

Without the establishment of counterbalances to elite power, without the establishments of feedback mechanism to punish elites for their inequities, the deterioration of American civic virtue will continue apace. Even now, elites seek to establish a new national myth for their power founded in ideas that once originated in the dark corners of academia such as Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI); and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG). Competence is no longer the metric for success, towing the party line is.

The consequence of abandoning meritocratic virtue is sowing seeds of woe across society. Boeing, the same company renowned for its bombers that helped win the Second World War, is witnessing failure after failure of its airplanes as it has intentionally suppressed the wisdom of its engineers in favor of financiers and “personality” hires.

Even the Secret Service, that once distinguished agency that protected America’s highest-ranking officials, is being exposed as its head, personally selected by First Lady Jill Biden, repeatedly refused to provide former President Trump with the additional security prior to a failed assassination attempt. What’s more, Secret Service officials had failed to secure a rooftop a mere 150 yards away from the podium and failed to respond as bystanders pleaded for action to be taken against the strange individual on the nearby roof.

There are but two of the plethora of examples which permeate every fabric of American society. Elites have insulated themselves from accountability and are now no different from the old European aristocracy who belittled all appeals of reform while flaunting their hedonistic lifestyles. Despite the remonstrances of today’s wisemen and astrologists - that is think tankers and economists - the emergence of social discord is always due to a failure of elites to respond to voice of the people. And in a representative republic like the United States, it is because the so-called representatives of the people advance their own self-interests at the expense of the best interests of the people.

It is for these reasons it should be little surprise that, despite his flaws and excesses, Donald Trump was reelected as president by overwhelming margins. Indeed, Trump's victory was the first time in 20 years a Republican has won the national popular vote with some minority groups swinging Republican by well over double digits. Just as in 2016, Trump’s election in 2024 is a repudiation and a rejection of the status quo elites. While Americans may disdain the more chaotic elements of a second Trump administration, this is preferable to things remaining the same. It is not the process, a thing so sacred to status quo elites, that matters to the average American: it is the policy outcomes which matter the most. Competence is the expectation.

The second Trump administration is expected to begin the process of reform and force accountability upon incompetent and self-serving elites. This will unquestionably result in acrimonious rhetoric and political actions as Trump and his team begin the process of firing incompetent individuals within the federal bureaucracy as well as pursuing criminal charges against those who have broken the law. The end result of such ventures is unknown, but it possible to discern how this process of populist reform followed by counter reform and ultimate resolution is but part of a cycle of human affairs.

And so, attention must be given to the demise of the Roman Republic and the lessons of the past.