The problem is that there is no neutral market. Attacking the naivety of those who defend merit value is a red herring.

Markets are social constructions created by the rules established by laws and regulations. The current set of rules and regulations establish the way that the markets work at present. If, as some believe, there might be defects in these rules, then there is nothing special about changing the rules.

Are there defects? The long term (Plato to 19th century and most of the world today) view of government has been that government exists to provide for the well being of the population at large. If something in the way we create markets defeats this, we are free to change the markets.

It is reasonable to argue that allowing money changers (bankers) to skim huge sums of money off banking transactions in relatively non-transparent transactions (computerized banking, swaps, etc.) is not beneficial to the public at large. In that case, perhaps the markets should be changed. One way to do that is to limit how much people can skim off the markets (set salary caps). Perfectly reasonable. Has nothing to do with market value or merit value. It is the rules of the game.

Let's not frame the problem wrongly.

These folks are left behind in a world that needs people who have developed their thinking skills, not their manual labor skills. But more than that, these folks are easily manipulated by every demagogue who ever gets a 30 minute radio show.

Yes, I have empathy for their needs and their economic and social fear, I grew up with them. But, I don't think they are willing to do one thing that every member of Alcoholics Anonymous has to do to begin taking control of their lives. That thing is, accept that they have made decisions that helped put them where they are.

I am not prepared to say every teabagger is a self-created dope, I haven't met them all. But I am willing to say the large underclass of education-averse Americans is the fertile field the demagogues are hoeing.

It is hard to reason with people who don't know how to reason.