Ambition is a river everyone wants to swim in. Some go to prestigious schools that tell them precisely where the fastest currents and bridges are, while others have to fight tooth and nail to figure it out. Meritocracy comes from strong education for everyone about the flow points and quick feedback on what is well paid and well needed for society, with instant access to that data. What you’re asking for instead is for government to fence in the and deciding how much you can pull out when you’re done swimming, piping whatever government wants to its own politically favored pet projects that create a political aristocracy instead. I grew up in Eastern Europe - even to this day politics is about channeling projects and money to your buddies, and restrictions to your competitors. Jibing on the wealthiest is envy - you assume and enforce wealth as a zero sum game. It’s not. When those spoiled rich kids blow 6 digits on a purse, that 6 digits goes into a company owned by many retirees via stocks. You want the rich to be spending. Wealth is created with ambition, which you want more of. If you choke people’s ability to pass their earnings to loved ones, they will leave this country and build their life elsewhere. Making information about where wealth is to be made more public and available is meritocracy. Ivy league schools teach the personal preferences of supreme court judges and the pathways to success in Private Equity and other fields - make that public!
