The other day I finished Zoltán Pogátsa's book about the global elite. On the one hand I felt somewhat relieved, since I had to admit that the (lack of) competition in our country is far from being a uniquely Hungarian trait.
But I am also disappointed, because according to what is written, it is impossible, or only very difficult, to achieve success "purely" through individual performance within a single generation. What is more, criticizing these processes is a risky undertaking at best.
I picked out a few thoughts that summarize the book's message well:
"Researchers of an economy abstracted from everything can easily believe that companies' success depends on market competition, i.e. that it is meritocratic. In reality, unfortunately, this abstract economics has very little of substance to say about actual economic processes, because the substantive questions are decided in the political and sociological space.
But the same is true of political science. Studying ideologies and party systems will not lead anywhere either, if we want to understand the actual political processes, unless we take into account the staggering influence of money on political processes. The ordinary voter understands this precisely when they resignedly accept that politics is the playground of the wealthy.
The super-rich buy themselves influence, while politicians convert their political influence into capital.
Understanding the real world therefore requires political economy, an interdisciplinary approach willing to acknowledge these actually existing entanglements, and to analyze while taking them into account.
[...]
The antidote to a state captured by oligarchs is a society whose members have been educated widely enough to understand why the diversion of resources by a narrow elite is such an enormous problem. And a broad middle class that has enough income and savings that it dares to voice its opinion, and is not forced into paternalistic survival networks.
For this, however, a welfare state is needed, financed through redistribution, with a good education system. A poor society is incapable of financing all this from its own wealth."
