"Hey, you know, grades suck. Dont they?"
The class would universally agree.
So, look, there will be no "grading". That is, you will all get A's. Just come to class, read the stuff, let's have great discussions.
YAY! they'd say.
You know, I'd say, the whole department should get rid of grades. We should just give everyone who's a major As.
YAY! the majors would say. Others would say: I'm switching majors.
I'd stand there for a while, smiling, caught up in their excitement.
Then I'd say, so this college is pretty swank, right? IT's got a great reputation, right? When you say you go to this college, what do people think.
They'd tell me: that you're smart, that you have a good education, that you had to have good grades to get in.
So, let's say the entire school gives everyone As, what would happen to the reputation of this college?
oh
You can't have a socially stratified society without the same mechanism at work, one which limits rewards to the deserving and punishes the losers. Rewards -- the good life -- must be scarce to have any value. Stratified societies produce scarcity.
QED