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Comment by celticninja

5 years ago

I dont even know where to start with this comment.

> One problem with the British upperclass, is that they tend to be educated at private schools like Eton, where they primarily learn confidence. So tons of British politicians and managers know how to appear to know what they're doing, without actually knowing what they're doing.

Having worked with certain interested underwriters from Lloyd's, it was an easy upvote for me.

  • I agree that in politics that type of idiot is particularly over-represented, however it is unfair to assume this is the case with most managers in the UK. Perhaps it is because I have worked for and with competent UK managers who have no public school background, so the generalisation that this applies to tons of people is inaccurate. I am not defending the Eton educated upperclass just saying that they hardly represent the majority of managers employed in the UK.

    • I didn't mean to imply that all UK managers or politicians are like that, just that there's a segment that's coming from these schools that train primarily for confidence rather than competence. And they try to help each other to these positions of power in order to maintain the system.

      It's not universal for all UK politicians and managers, and it's not unique to the UK, but their system of mediocre elite schools that seems to train specifically for confidence, does make it more blatant.

You can start by agreeing with it. It's not just true, it's the fundamental reason the UK is in the mess it's currently in.

  • The statement may be correct if it was limited only to Eton educated politicians. As it isn't it is an unfair generalisation on mangers, many of whom are not Eton educated

Could you try? As a (maybe naive, not upperclass) British citizen it seems pretty reasonable.

  • I just think it could be applied to UK politicians who are predominantly privately educated and incredibly out of touch, but it is a stretch to think that most company managers are privately educated. Particularly because in the car of Thomas Cook the CEO is a German educated Swiss man.

    Prior to that is was run by a woman, who was not Eton educated. So basically the comment is a generalisation that cannot even be applied to this specific instance.

    The only thing it can be applied to fairly is the British political class, who in general would adhere to it.

Its quite true look at the Mess Cameron and Johnson have created and all the other PPE Oxbridge grads.

  • I don't disagree with that, British political class certainly fits the generalisation made by the GP, but it can't be fairly applied to business managers. Thomas Cook was run by a Swiss guy educated in Germany.