The meritocracy of failure

In part two of Frank's interview with Hartmann (part one here) he discusses the meritocracy of the professional class and why it has consistently failed the American people. Frank is not opposed to expertise per se, just the orthodox meritocracy that is defined by establishment standards. He compares them to some of the experts of FDR's administration. While some of them did indeed have some more establishment credentials, many were mavericks that challenged the establishment's policies as well as what the very term expertise meant. It was more an expertise of the streets rather than the ivory towers, one that came from living the life of the people rather than the privileged life of the professional class. So under the professional liberal meritocracy their social class always does quite well. The rest of us not so much.