I don't see the difference to capatalism (disclaimer: hardly looked). The believe that anything can be achieved when doing well enough is rather fundamental, because it's tautological. The modesty to currently accept the situation as limited by factors out of control is just a factor that can be controled.
By meritocracy I meant the American beliefthat everybody is responsible for their own success - but in turn also for not being successful. That seems to lead to less charity (judging from outside of the US). So Meritocracy might make you believe that poor people deserve to be poor, just like Hinduism might make you believe that poor people deserve to be poor. (Just pondering, I don't have deep knowledge of either cultures).
