Imagine society as being like an array of arrays of humans. There's lots of levels, but there's a clear trend where low numbered arrays are large and high numbe

Imagine society as being like an array of arrays of humans. There's lots of levels, but there's a clear trend where low numbered arrays are large and high numbered arrays are small. Some of the arrays aren't full, and there's an operation where you can swap up to the array above you if there's a gap. And it's theoretically true for a number of swaps to carry you all the way up to the very short arrays up top. But there is no particular operation to grow the width of an array, in fact the high numbered ones have been getting more cramped. So the trajectory of any one human might end right the top, and you can guarantee some humans definitely will, but the expected trajectory of a human is stagnation in the low numbered arrays. This should make you understand why the American Dream is a cruel and manipulative lie on the population level, even as it's undeniably true on the individual level. Also note: the only thing meritocracy adds to the above is competition for the level swaps. Assuming it works perfectly, it becomes a bubble sort, where the humans with most merit semi-randomly bubble up into the highest numbered arrays. The arrays do not become larger. And now you've told the people in the low numbered arrays that they deserve all the crap they're getting.