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The FAA’s Hiring Scandal

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739 points firebaze | 4 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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sschueller ◴[] No.42948951[source]
I don't have a problem with hiring qualified people instead of meeting quotas but the fact that the ones pushing this are them selves the most unqualified people is just beyond me.
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justonceokay ◴[] No.42949155[source]
That’s because it isn’t actually about qualification. It’s actually about a lack of accountability. Trump wants everyone to be able to hire their friends just like he does, optics be damned. I think a lot of people actually agree with this at a visceral level.

Left leaning people are more concerned with power controlled by nepotism and “unfair” connections. To me that is a kind of sour grapes view fueled by too many participation trophies.

A government full of cronies sucks but we can at least hope to get our own cronies in at some point. A meritocratic/technocratic government sounds like a dystopian novel.

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1. s3r3nity ◴[] No.42949691[source]
>A government full of cronies sucks...

>A meritocratic...government sounds like a dystopian novel.

So nepotism + networking = bad, but meritocracy also = bad...?

>...we can at least hope to get our own cronies in at some point.

OR you reduce the risk vector and limit the size & scope of government. Most people agree with your earlier premises, so why would I support adding powers to a structure where folks I strongly disagree with will lead that structure ~50% of the time?

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2. cratermoon ◴[] No.42950154[source]
> So nepotism + networking = bad, but meritocracy also = bad...?

The downsides of meritocracy invalidate the almost idolatrous worship of the idea seen in the tech field.

Tolstoy wrote “It is principally through this false idea of inequality, and the intoxication of power and of servility resulting from it, that men associated in a state organization are enabled to commit acts opposed to their conscience without the least scruple or remorse.”[1]

See also:

Sandel, Michael J. The Tyranny of Merit : What’s Become of the Common Good?. [S.l.]: Penguin Books, 2021.

Niebuhr, Reinhold. Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. https://archive.org/details/moralmanimmorals00nieb_0.

[1] Tolstoy, Leo,. 1894. “‘The kingdom of God is within you’ Christianity not as a mystic religion but as a new theory of life;” New York: Cassell Pub. Co. /z-wcorg/. 1894. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/3859761.html.

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3. s3r3nity ◴[] No.42951244[source]
Biggest issue with Democrats is learning that "People are born with different abilities."

Biggest issue with Republicans is learning that "People are born with different abilities."

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4. cratermoon ◴[] No.42956085{3}[source]
Thank you for your analysis. It is both penetrating and diffuse.