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There's some way in which we would prefer not to see very clearly the immense gifts and intelligence of some of the people who live in our most abject conditions. Maybe there are some things at work in deciding who gets to be society's winners and who gets to be society's losers that don't have to do with merit.

In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit.

Where we can compete on merit, we do very well.

We all want merit to mean something, and we all may be tempted to reduce that meaning to something measurable and concrete like an SAT score. The reality, though, is that who deserves entry into an institution depends on what the institution exists to do.

Meritocracy is a good thing. Whenever possibly, people should be judged based on their work and results, not superficial qualities.

In politics, merit is rewarded by the possessor being raised, like a target, to a position to be fired at.

The sufficiency of merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient.

It's not a meritocracy until everyone starts with the same opportunities, is it?

America is a meritocracy.