Hire on Merit

Let's pretend we ever had a meritocracy in hiring, or in any important part of life.

Let's also pretend that "merit" and "excellence" and "intelligence" mean something, and mean the same thing for everyone in all circumstances (so we know we're all talking about the same qualities), and that we can identify and measure those properties. Let's wave away the most obvious problem: no meaningful definition of the terms, much less metrics or objectivity.

We can agree that DEI, at least as commonly caricatured, can lead to some unwanted outcomes if carried to the absurd extreme. But we don't need to present a binary choice and then pretend that MEI means anything other than people like those presented on the web page patting themselves on the back -- they must have merit, excellence, and intelligence to get what they have, because meritocracy.

"I am the best candidate who meets the requirement that I be related to the boss. Our company is absolutely a meritocracy."