3/31   I'm sick and tired of people claiming: "only merit should
       matter", without defining merit. Does merit mean IQ? Or does it
       mean "number of publications", or "number of hours worked gratis
       for the SPCA", or perhaps "GPA+SAT+GRE+ACT/23skidoo"??? What a
       bunch of rich fucking whiners. Live in a projects area for a
       while, then come back and talk to me about merit.
        \_ Just because *you* have trouble defining it doesn't mean others do.
           Merit is your worth to the job, school, whatever.  It's what you
           contribute and "bring to the table".  Some black junky whore brings
           nothing.  She had it tough as a kid?  So what?  Life is tough all
           over.  Life is unfair.  Trying to force "fairness" into life only
           makes it unfair for those more fit.  Those who have merit suffer
           while losers advance for no reason other than to make certain
           powerful figures on the left feel good.  The same powerful figures
           who are unharmed by their ill conceived and poorly executed
           policies of arbitrary unfairness.
                \_ By your definition, it should be able to buy Merit with
                   Money. Since Money brings a lot to the table, people
                   with Money should have a lot of Merit. NOTE: I think
                   that some amount of Merit should be purchasable with
                   Money. If you have Money you should be able to buy
                   a undergrad and possibly a graduate degree (including
                   PHD) at a reputable school. What's the point of having
                   Money if you can't use it to buy the things that you
                   want.
                   \_ Hello?  Context?  Sure, if you work for a company and
                      _you_pay_them_ to work there then I guess you're bringing
                      quite a bit to the table.  Uhm, yeah, whatever.  This is
                      an incredibly stupid straw man argument.  No.  That is
                      *not* my definition of merit.  I want my VC to have cash,
                      I want my company to pay me cash, but I don't expect my
                      employees to pay me to work at my company, nor my
                      students to pay me for a grade.  Get real.  I said
                      *nothing* like that and you know it.
                   \_ Money is one thing you can bring to the table, so in
                      places where money is important, having money equals
                      having merit.  But you cannot buy ability with money,
                      and people care about ability, not degrees.  So even
                      if you buy a good looking degree, which is certainly
                      possible, you will not fool anyone in the workplace
                      for long unless you have something to back that degree
                      up.
                      \_ Hey, I think people should be able to buy whatever
                         they want with their money (including an
                         educational degree). --Stanford MSEECS student.
                         \_ Who gets the cash though?  If I can get a cut,
                            I'd have no problem with it.
        \_ Merit at a company is how well you contribute.  Merit in school
           is how well you know your subject.  Merit is NOT the colour of
           your skin, or the past history of your ethnic group.
        \_ what index do they accept at EECS these days?  Does a 4.0+
           GPA count for more than 4000 points?
           \_ No. And if you want to get into EECS, the 500 to 700
              extra points you have shouldn't matter since your SAT I&II
              + your 4000 GPA will put your over the 7700 mark. Also
              4.0 in HS means jack at Cal since almost everyone was
              4.0 in HS.
                \_ I was 3.34 in HS!   -blojo
                        \_ That explains a lot.
                   \_ man, jon, being a slacker was cool in the eighties,
                      maybe, or whenever it was Judd Nelson was cool. In
                      this day and age, cool = college superstar. get with
                      it, you aging hipster. -ali
                   \_ well, at least some of us look better than
                      these college superstars...
                        \_ "college superstar" = big fish, small bowl,
                           no car, noodle ramen diet.  -John
              \_ what are you talking about? 500 - 700 extra points? 4.0+ GPA?
                 they removed GPA weighting over 2 years ago.
        \_ merit is growing up with a silver spoon up your ass, having
           your mommie and daddie get you into good schools and giving
           you your high-achieving psychie so that you can earn their
           love. then you get to bitch about merit to kids that don't
           get the same as you did, but somehow should have done just
           as well as you even though they have to dodge bullets, drugs,
           and gangs.
           \_ Waaaah!  This troll brought to you by silver spoon silly boy on
              the motd.
        \_ Losers.  Stop bitching and go get some fucking work done.
        \_ hey, the man's got a point.