Comment by zajio1am

Well, i would say that there are two common fallacies w.r.t. meritocracy:

1) Mixing up merit (ability to provide achievement) with effort.

2) Assuming it has anything to do with moral weight. While it primarily targets just decision making and distribution of deserts (rewards).

Why distribution of deserts should be meritocratic? Because that ensure that collaboration is positive-sum for everybody involved. Considering this, fair reward for participation in some group effort has to satisfy a condition that reward is at least as large as a missed opportunity (of collaborating in some other group, individually, or not collaborating at all).