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On the meritocracy argument if you think of it like economic success = merit = hard work and determination, I think that's wrong because there are two things required, that are matters of luck, to turn that hard work into economic success.
One you have to be talented, or have some innate ability that others may not have. Just like some people will never be a top basketball player no matter how hard they work because they just don't have the body for it many people just dont have the brain to understand medicine or law or business at high levels. There's nothing wrong with not being able to do that though and people shouldn't be punished by having a lower standard of living because of it. Hard work !=merit
The second is you have to be talented in a field that the market values. The classic example of this is the starving artist but even if you're talented at child care you may not be payed well unless you "advance" to becoming a manager which you may not be good at. This also goes into how we value work as a society since that childcare worker is doing more good for society then a Google engineer figuring out ways to click ads, but the latter is payed far more and is deemed worthy of merit. Merit != Economic success
If you'd like to know more about this perspective I'd recommend reading "the tyranny of merit" by Michael sandel. It's written by a Harvard philosophy professor on the reality and the moral and political implications of the "meritocracy" as it exists in the U.S. today.