It's not that the smooth path you can get via nepotism is the base way things work which people who don't "know a guy" are excluded from. Rather, everything is falling apart and shitty, and if you're lucky, you occasionally get to circumvent that shittyness.
Well, obviously it isn't if you're not in the 1%. If you're in the 1% then that's the way the world has always worked and you don't know anything differently.
I don't believe that human society can, practically, get particularly close to the ideal. I question the choice of fatty meat as a substrate for minds.
For my money, I'd suggest that merit will get you further today than in the days of letters of recommendation, but that failures of meritocracy are more visible.
Where I am there is no forced disclosure, no costs costs assigned, and it is $150 to file.
And while a lawyer can represent a large firm, an employee has to be present, and the lawyer cannot use excessive legalise, the court is carried on in plain language... with the judge expaining things to you if you don't userstand.
That's pretty accessible.
The biggest risk is not knowing about no required discovery, and costs. Lawyers for big corp will ask for things, and hope you work your tail off. I just say no.
They will also elude to how expensive this will be, to which I typically snort.
Said large companies typically spend 50k to 100k on lawyers, and I spend $150 and a dozen or two hours of my personal time.
All very amusing.
Anyhow, a good equalizer.
