“Everyone can be successful as long as they work hard.” How many times has this statement been heard? McNamee and Miller's myth of meritocracy challenges the widely held American belief in meritocracy, that people get out of the system what they put into it based on individual merit. The common misconception is that the American system distributes resources – primarily wealth and income – based on individual merit. It is widely believed that this is how the system works – and that the ideology is that individual merit is based on “a combination of factors including innate ability, hard work, right attitude, high moral character and integrity” ( McNamee and Miller 277). McNamee and Miller argue that there is a gap in how people think the system works and how it actually works and have referred to this gap as the myth of meritocracy. Their argument has two parts. First, that “the impact of merit on economic outcomes is vastly overestimated by the ideology of the American dream” (McNamee and Miller 277). Secondly, they identify a series of “non-meritorious” factors that counteract the effects of merit and create barriers to individual mobility. McNamee and Miller then identify several ways in which they believe America can be a more meritocratic society. McNamee and Miller point to the 2003 study conducted by Kenneickell that proves their thesis that distributions of wealth and income are skewed, with the top 20% of households receiving a large portion of total disposable income. While 20% doesn't seem like a large sweet spot, keep in mind that that 20% receives 49.7% of disposable income. Tess, for all intents and purposes, should be living the American dream and benefiting from the meri...... middle of paper ...... and that large effect on economic outcomes, relies heavily on the premise that such Goals would be seen as something desirable and politically feasible. It is widely believed that a meritocratic society will actually cause more harm than good. The authors note that “the myth of meritocracy is itself harmful because ignoring the most important causes of inequality leads to an unjustified glorification of the rich and an unjustified condemnation of the poor” (McNamee and Miller 284). If we want to bring about social change, we must first work on ourselves before attempting to change other areas that are influenced by the myth of meritocracy. We need to address our beliefs and how they can influence our behaviors. Pure meritocracy will probably never fully integrate into our daily lives, but by addressing it consistently, some of the possible side effects can be reduced.