Life With Matthew Effect, Essay Example

The concept that Matthew effect or accumulated advantage advance some claims to the effect that the most successful people have been favored by social advantage along with opportunities. Access to one opportunity opens the way to even more special opportunities that consequently trigger success. This scenario has been evident in the fields of sport, education and socioeconomics, the family, arts, in the workplace, among others. Success has therefore been attributed to accumulative advantage by the socialists. For example, the socioeconomically well up individuals have greater opportunities of accessing huge tax breaks while best students can access the best coaching as well as practice (Gladwell, 114-116). Gladwell’s Matthew Effect is therefore evident in a cross section of human institution, the ultimate destiny being intensification of inequalities in terms of education, skills, political power, economic power, prestige and knowledge. Gladwell’s Matthew Effect therefore plays a crucial role in expanding the gap that prevail between those who have and those who are unlucky to have or the have-mores along with the have-less up to a point of encountering limits and hindrances.

The concept of accumulated advantage or the Mathew effect leads to richer people becoming even richer while the poor becomes poorer overtime. The Matthew effect has its foundation on the Bible in Matthew 25:29 that suggests that, “For unto every one that posses shall be given, and he shall accumulate plenty: but from him that posses not shall be taken away even the little that he hath”.

The concept of  Matthew effect features prominently in Gladwell’s book with the ultimate objective of highlighting the feedback loops that prevail in a variety of aspects of human life in the community. The feedback loops play a vital role in facilitating the effectiveness of taking advantage of circumstances surrounding some individuals to access supplementary advantages over their counterparts who are less privileged in this regard (Gladwell, 124-136).  Consequently, the segment of people in the society who already have gains preferential advantage to have more.

In contemporary life, this phenomenon is practically applicable to all. The best placed companies in business have a competitive advantage that are attributed to such issues as economies of scale, access to business permits, the use of proprietary technology and easy access to raw materials.

In education, Mathew effect relates to the early acquisition of skills such as reading abilities as having significant effects in the future opportunities of success. The children who start by failing in reading will develop a tendency of reading less as compared to the students who start with successful reading skills. The difficulties developed in the first stages affects performance in other subjects thus making them to remain behind in terms of performance in their school life.

Gladwell’s Matthew Effect is also applicable in politics. Incumbency is a common feature surrounding political offices. The candidates who hold high profile positions in political systems may access the attention of the media without charges thus giving them preferential advantage for election and re-election in political offices.

Gladwell’s Matthew Effect mixed experience

My experience with Gladwell’s Matthew Effect is mixed, therefore, it cannot be considered as positive or negative, as shall be demonstrated in this section of the paper. The occurrence of Gladwell’s Matthew Effect is characterized by the occurrence of a social advantage that subsequently generate supplementary advantage in a system called feedback overtime. The result of this development is amplification of a gap between people in the society who own particular resources and who face inaccessibility of these resources that can be perceived as social-cultural compound interest.

Some people are lucky to enjoy primary advantages. However, the source of these primary advantages could be genuine or otherwise. While some people earn this position, other people may acquire them through inheritance or ill means. Whatever the origin of these initial advantages, Gladwell’s Matthew Effect will only apply when the resources associated with initial advantages are reinvested wisely such that they accumulate and generate additional advantages. Reinvestment is not a direct implication that these resources will generate more. Some people invest in business but it later collapses thus they fail to attain the self amplification cycle that leads to the success of Gladwell’s Matthew Effect. Consequently, sequential accumulation of advantages becomes less automatic for those individuals. Additionally, accumulation of advantages may be hampered by some factors that are indispensable in life. In some situations, s limitation or blockage in Gladwell’s Matthew Effect may arise as a result of countervailing factors (Gladwell, 144-156).  These include such issues as economic competition, moral resistance, depletion of available resources, political factors and natural calamities among others.  The case is however different for those individual who achieve success on first trial.

Conclusion

It is imperative that we try to capture a clear understanding of Mathew effect so that we empower the entire society in averting the destructive consequences associated with this phenomenon. The realization of the dangers of damaging vulnerable individuals in the community through extreme and escalating inequalities is a critical eye opener to this initiative. Extreme inequalities are potential precursors to violent conflicts that may destroy the entire society as has been witnessed in various parts of the world.

Works cited

Gladwell, Malcolm Outliers: The Story of Success 1^st Ed. Little, Brown and Company, 2008-11-18)