It seems obvious (to me) that being an elite is valuable (good) – for some people. Conversely – for some people – being an elite would be net anti-valuable (bad).
For you specifically (or me, who also doesn’t particularly want to be ‘elite’), I think we’re probably right that that we wouldn’t enjoy it overall, despite the many advantages. We could be wrong about that tho!
It’s something I wrestle with for more specific cases as well. Do I want to be an elite in my profession? I have mixed feelings. For one, the money would be nice! But I also don’t want to work the longer hours I’d also expect.
It would seem reasonable to try being an elite, in some cases, if doing so doesn’t seem too costly. Elite status does seem to be a particularly costly signal in general tho.
Answering your clarified questions:
It seems obvious (to me) that being an elite is valuable (good) – for some people. Conversely – for some people – being an elite would be net anti-valuable (bad).
For you specifically (or me, who also doesn’t particularly want to be ‘elite’), I think we’re probably right that that we wouldn’t enjoy it overall, despite the many advantages. We could be wrong about that tho!
It’s something I wrestle with for more specific cases as well. Do I want to be an elite in my profession? I have mixed feelings. For one, the money would be nice! But I also don’t want to work the longer hours I’d also expect.
It would seem reasonable to try being an elite, in some cases, if doing so doesn’t seem too costly. Elite status does seem to be a particularly costly signal in general tho.