General comment first: maybe the problem isn't meritocracy per se, but a generalized cultish belief in competition as the only tool that determines value. Meritocracy piles on to allow aristocracy to defer decisionmaking responsibility to invisible hands and avoid going outside to taaallllk to peeeepullll.

Human beings distinguished the species by our competency at cooperating in groups. Ever since civilization put a wall around us, we have been competing like caged animals and calling it "fair" because prophets invented profits. We are so far along the "money=merit" path that we forgot what real value is; to the point that even arguing that price doesn't equal value is considered insane.