Usefulness. We have to seek it in everyone. "Meritocracy" assumes that those with 'merit' get to decide what is meritable. Usefulness to one's place, planet and people can be found in anyone, often when least expected. Sometimes the 'stupid' among us have insights we would never have thought of. Unless we are looking, we miss them. When our society is based on monetary competition (one dollar=one vote), too many people let the dollars make the decisions for them. It's a very sad, narrow definition of 'living'. Humans can be amazingly resilient and useful to their places, just as we can be amazingly stupid, mean and selfish when we build systems that make us so. When we look around, there is less "meritocracy" than Aristocracy to it, I think. The vast majority of humans believe in an Ultimate Aristocrat to determine their morality for them. It would be a rather simple concept to teach every child to endeavor to contribute more than they take from the world, but it wouldn't feed profits to the 'prophets' of money and power like competitive selfishness does.