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That is not the true objection of those who do talk about that, considering they do not sing the praises of billionaire orphans and refugees, but rather want to take from them more than they want to take from a dissolute trust-fund kid.
Well sure, but that's not me and my point. That's those other people. I'm not claiming that taking all of the billionaires' wealth would improve society, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't unless it was done in some completely unrealistic sci-fi fantasy way, I'm just dunking on people who claim to be all about meritocracy while ignoring inheritance.
I view inheritance as part of meritocracy. If you have an inheritance, excluding adoptees, chances are high that your parents are some variety of high-quality stock and you will be too. If you, the inheritor, are not well adapted to present conditions then you’ll lose all the money and it makes its way to everyone else anyways.
I consider that there would actually be a lot more meritocracy if there was an effective way to keep coffin-dodgers from spending down most of their children’s inheritance just to hang on to another 4 or 5 years of rapidly decreasing life value. I also reserve blame about this for descendants who are unwilling to just let Mom and Pop die with some dignity.
I agree that the practice of inheritance is eugenic. And it is probably going to make a better society than a pure meritocracy where everyone is raised by the state starting with no assets (will people still be motivated to make the enormously outsized contributions that make a billionaire, if they cannot pass it down or take it with them?)
But the point of the word "meritocracy" is distill the concept of rewarding people for their individual accomplishments, and explicitly avoiding rewarding them for "higher order" traits (parents, race, sex, age, disability, etc) that correlate well with actual useful contributions and achievements (growing a company, solving an open problem in maths, constructing a house, etc)
"Well-adapted" is a spectrum. Yes, if the inheritor is a total moron, he will throw away everything passed down on gambling, drugs and alcohol. And if the inheritor is as competent as the progenitor, they will preserve all the wealth. Somewhere in between these levels of adaptedness, there is someone who would not be able to create a large amount of wealth for themselves, but could preserve it.
If you really don't give someone any advantage from an inheritance, then people wouldn't go to such lengths to give their children inheritances.
If you just replaced the word "meritocracy" with something like "utility" or "a better society", I would agree.
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