“Michael Young, the Labour politician who coined the term ‘meritocracy’, intended it satirically – conjuring visions of a callous dystopian future in which each citizen was judged solely on his or her intellect. Life for those at the bottom would be even worse than it is now. Imagine having to tell yourself: ‘I’m at the bottom not because I “didn’t know the right people”, or because I’m the victim of prejudice or unfairness. I’m at the bottom because that’s my rightful place.’ When we fail, it’s reassuring to tell ourselves that it wasn’t our fault. A flawlessly fair society would eliminate that last shred of comfort. Human beings can just about handle rejection; it’s the horror of self-knowledge we can’t bear.” (Michael Deacon, The Daily Telegraph)

Even assuming for a moment that everyone was judged on his or her intellect, it doesn’t take into account judgement.  You can have an outstanding intellect and have poor judgement.  For instance, the people who run the great universities of the world undoubtedly have outstanding intellects.  And yet they have allowed, even encouraged, grade inflation.  So now we are not sure who’s outstandingly smart, especially those who got the inflated grades.  In order not to hurt the feelings of the students we have sown self-doubt, although no one is going to talk about it.