You&#x27;ve missed it completely. While there&#x27;s value in individual merit, recognition and reward of accomplishment, it&#x27;s terribly flawed to try to run a nation on such a principle because it&#x27;s merely a variation on aristocracy. In a meritocracy there is no voting, there is no democracy, and there is not even really representation. The people in power decide the metric by which their replacements are chosen.