I don’t hear it said enough in explicit terms, so it’s worth saying now.
Meritocracy is bad, you should not want it as a leftist.
On top of what you’ve said, I’d add that it’s an op, never true, and the original word is a parody of the idea. Even if it worked in theory, it’s not a good thing.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. That is what we’re aiming for.
You don’t need a hierarchy based on talent to do that. That will erase the thing you’re trying to achieve. People can manage themselves on democratic grounds, more or less.
This isn’t even hypothetical. For a while, the game company Valve operated this way. They voted on each other’s salaries, they had no official titles or bosses. Employees in aggregate are generally pretty good, in a non toxic environment, about evaluating the talent of another employee and coming up with what a fair salary would be.
Workplace democracy might seem like a meme, but it’s a real, practical thing.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need. That is what we’re aiming for.
They voted on each other’s salaries, they had no official titles or bosses. Employees in aggregate are generally pretty good, in a non toxic environment, about evaluating the talent of another employee and coming up with what a fair salary would be.
The Valve scenario is a great example of what we should be working for right now, but it’s pretty far from “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” If your coworkers vote you a high salary, they’re doing that more on some meritocratic principle than on consideration of what you need.
Until we’re in a completely post-scarcity society, workplace democracy (combined with the means of decent living guaranteed to everyone) is a better target than “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” A democratic workplace where income is determined by peers gives workers incentives for being more productive, which (at least according to Blackshirts and Reds) was lacking in the USSR. It also acts as a check against the most productive workers turning reactionary.
