The idea of meritocracy is such a bullshit lie it's laughable. We need it so our children don't live in a world without hope but much like santa claus they should shed the idea around the time of college. There are merit based reward systems. Ladder climbing is real. Only, many of them are corrupted by politics and mismanagement. Even if you succeed in an isolated merit based system it's only to incentivize more production and you will never reach the level of CEO or what ever.

What we should teach young adults is that life is a lottery inside a lottery inside a lottery. Success is about increasing your odds by taking as many smart bets as you can. Bets where the reward is great and where you don't have much at stake if you lose. Betting with other people's money is the most efficient way of extracting value. The meritocracy isn't real, so neither is the morals around it. If you want nothing but an easy life this is how you do it. If your can't in good conscious gamble with other people's livelihoods we will see you on the ladder.