George Carlin - It's A BIG Club & You Ain't In It!

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Ozzie_osman · 2024-04 · Strong recommendation

One of my favorite clips ever is [VIDEO] It's a big club and you ain't in it! Thoughtful, funny, masterfully delivered.

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jmyeet · 2026-05 · Reference

I'm reminded of the prescient 2005 commentary of George Carlin: "it's a big club and you ain't in it" [1]. Hollywood, in particular, is almost completely nepo baby captured. This is an oft-repeated trend where an industry goes into decline and the children of those who originally succeeded end up dominating it. I think there's a lot of this in politics too, particularly because government jobs (including staffers on campaigns and for representatives) don't pay a lot so you really have to come from an affluent background to afford to live. It used to be that if you wanted to be a cast member on SNL you had to go to Harvard because of the Harvard Lampoon. I've seen this issue with the doctor pipeline too. Various analyses show that coming from a high socioeconomic background is a massive advantage, even with med schools trying to provide more opportunities to candidates from a lower socioeconomic background. A few med schools now because of endowments have gone tuition-free but even here it seems (it's early days) like wealthier candidates get more of these opportunities. As a wealthier person you don't need to "waste" time on a job. You can do resume-packing activities (research, volunteering). So circling back, elite education's role (IMHO) is to be exclusionary. It's to maintain this structure. "Social proof" is extremely important because a lot of opportunities in life aren't about talent or skill but connections and social factors. You go to Stanford and do CS and you get

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jmyeet · 2026-03 · Reference

There's a double-whammy here of the Myth of Meritocracy under capitalism and Prosperity Gospel under Protestantism. After the Civil War we compensated slave owners . After the GFC we bailed out the banks. The government giving money to poor people is somehow a moral hazard yet the wealthy not only expect government handouts, they demand them. What's interesting AI is I think many people in tech don't yet realize how this is going to impact them. Jobs losses, depressed wages, unpaid extra work and constant layoff churn. The heady heights of the 2010s will seem like a fairy tale. Except this time, unlike a century ago, there is no labor movement. It's been decimated. There is no effective pushback against further wealth concentration to like 100,000 people. The Jeff Bezoes of the world will demand even more government money so they can have $205 billion instead of $200 billion and things will get really bad until eventually we have a Russian or french type revolution. Too many people think it's a big club when it isn't. As George Carlin said, you're not in it [1]. People actively advocate for their own worsening material conditions because they're deluded into thinking they'll be Jeff Bezos one day. [1]: [VIDEO]

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