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You are correct but I do have one thing to point out. We do not live in a meritocracy and we never have. It is a cultural myth that is very harmful, in that it is a major force in maintaining inequality.
Smart work and dedication can certainly improve a persons individual circumstances, that’s just the way of things. But we most assuredly do not put those with merit on top. It’s the other way around, we ascribe merit to those on top in direct contradiction to any reasonable measure of ‘merit’.
We culturally use the myth of meritocracy to justify extreme wealth accumulation. Once a person gains a certain amount of wealth, their money makes money for them plus society has this lovely tendency to overlook misbehavior if the miscreant has money.