The Myth of Merit

Gabriella Ronquillo ’26

And just like that, the U.S. has changed. As I watched the inauguration, I thought to myself, How did we let this happen? The absurdity of his vision for America stood out to me most clearly in one line from his speech: “We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” It struck me, Does anyone believe that we live in a meritocracy? That if we work hard enough, in addition to being given the proper resources to thrive in our current social class, we can climb the social ladder? This belief justifies Trump removing all federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and limiting gender identity to male and female. By creating a binary and eliminating any opportunity to discuss social issues that we may bring up that limit people from being able to survive in the U.S., Trump proposes, no one has to worry about being disadvantaged. Maybe, you’re just not working hard enough. Put this way it seems obvious that this won’t ever be possible, or at least not in the near future as the U.S. is practically run by business, as seen by Trump’s close circle fit for a dystopian novel: Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos.

I believe that deep down we all believe that it takes one person who can rise from the pits of society and uplift everyone else regardless of any social issues they may face. Unfortunately, this same mindset keeps us from taking any action to fix social issues and being complicit in allowing people with immense financial power like Trump to minimize the struggles that people face. Because if one person made it, it’s not because they addressed social issues, but because they were special. If one person can surpass the problem, then why do I have to try to combat it? Reflecting on the inauguration, we don’t give social issues as much merit as they deserve in the hope that good ol’ merit will come to save us from the truth that the U.S. government is inherently unequal opportunity.

We are part of the problem. If you aren’t convinced how much we value merit, look no further than our views on the economy. According to the Consumer Sentiment Index from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, people viewed the U.S. economy more positively when they had increased personal savings. However, during the pandemic when personal savings rates dramatically increased, they negatively viewed the economy because they couldn’t spend that money. We measure how successful the economy is by how successful each individual is doing financially. Why? Because we still hold onto the hope that our economy, and in turn, our country’s policies, favor people who work hard enough to become wealthy.

While we value merit, Trump makes clear that he doesn’t. Instead, he is proud to give political power to Elon Musk, who is set to run the new, Trump-invented Department of Government Efficiency. While Musk has no political experience, he doesn’t have to work to show he is competent enough to hold this power because he represents limitless wealth. While steps will be taken to prevent conflicts of interest, there will be a level of bias of the department favoring the interests of the wealthiest man in the world as opposed to working-class voters. However, he is able to show that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. For Trump, by helping big business, he is helping everyone. As the saying goes, the U.S. has the best democracy money can buy. In other words, we don’t need our voices heard as long as we have role models for what life is like as someone at the pinnacle of society. If the aim of many Americans is to have money, Trump can get away with being close with someone who is the embodiment of wealth. Censorship of people only matters when it affects the business of companies like Meta that recently ended their fact-checking program started in 2016. If we are driven to vote for someone for his promise of a better economy, would America thrive on an oligarchy?

This article was more of a rant. However, I am writing this to say that we must have our voices heard by confronting and writing through everything that is wrong about our U.S. political system because we cannot allow our voices to be replaced by dollar signs. Because people’s everyday struggles to use merit and still stay financially insecure shows that simply giving more money will not fix the wellbeing of everyone in the U.S.