What Meritocracy Misses: Recognising the Value of Every Person’s Sweat

The phrase “There is no high or low in occupations” has long since lost its meaning. Contract workers can earn less for doing the same job, while discrimination remains common and respect for workers is difficult to find. In this climate, equality can seem like an ideal suited only to a utopia.

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a new standard that goes beyond meritocracy’s ethics of deserved reward and acceptance

That is why Sung Yeol-kwan’s book, *Blood, Sweat, Brain, Luck*, asks where ideas of fairness should go when recognition and respect for labour have disappeared. Its four key words examine the forces that shape people’s lives: “blood” represents family background, “sweat” effort, “brain” ability, and “luck” the accidental factors people cannot choose.

The book revisits meritocracy, a term first used by British sociologist Michael Young in his 1958 work *The Rise of Meritocracy*. Young presented intelligence and effort as the sources of merit. Nearly seven decades later, however, effort has been recast as an endless struggle that may never produce results. Expressions such as “spoon class theory” and “Hell Joseon” reflect the social decline of the idea that effort alone determines success.

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the value of every person’s sweat

Sung argues that restoring the dignity of effort requires “a new standard that goes beyond meritocracy’s ethics of deserved reward and acceptance.” That standard should rest on a communal ethic that recognises the value of every person’s labour, rather than judging people solely by ability or achievement.

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a society where brain and blood coexist

The book also says meritocracy has never eliminated inherited advantage. Wealth passed through families helps determine children’s starting lines, creating a society where brain and blood coexist. Luck includes not only chance events but also parents, nationality, intelligence, gender, appearance, voice and athletic ability. Drawing on John Rawls’s idea of property-owning democracy, Sung argues that citizens need enough assets to begin life with self-respect and autonomy. The state must therefore correct the effects of luck while democracy and constitutional rules ensure fair starting conditions. The book further examines glass ceilings, protective “glass floors” built by middle-class parents, social mobility and the need to recognise people who perform dirty or difficult work that allows others to focus on their own jobs.

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the state can correct people’s luck