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Re:Evidence on Poverty Traps from Rural Bangladesh [pdf] by sanxiyn on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @07:53AM (#25569279)
The paper identifies one threshold at ~500 USD. That is, in Bangladesh, those with more than 500 USD assets tend to accumulate more assets, while those with less than 500 USD assets don't.

As people in Silicon Valley have more than 500 USD assets (citation needed), I don't see how this paper applies to Silicon Valley at all. There can be another such threshold, but the paper doesn't provide any experimental support for one.

Re:Evidence on Poverty Traps from Rural Bangladesh [pdf] by buran77 on Tuesday December 29, 2020 @08:02AM (#25569351)
That's a bit pedantic, the principle is exactly the same showing humans operate on the same principles regardless of geography. OP clearly discussed "the idea of meritocracy", not "the exact threshold" and the study just pinpointed a threshold while confirming the universality of the mechanism.

Whether it's $500 in Bangladesh where Google tells me the "typical" salary is ~$150-$300, or $500k in SV where the typical pay might be $150k-$300k the principle is still very much the same.

Everyone claims meritocracy but in the end it's proven it's not individual merit we're actually looking for. We're looking to maintain barriers around our layer of society and allow some form of real meritocracy only within a layer.