Tying rewards to individual merit puts tremendous pressure on people to achieve, often at the expense of others. Is our emphasis on individual merit as one of the primary criteria for giving out...

Tying rewards to individual merit puts tremendous pressure on people to achieve, often at the expense of others. Is our emphasis on individual merit as one of the primary criteria for giving out rewards—such as income, grades, and social recognition—simply a bias of our capitalist system, where people are expected to compete with one another for a share of social goods? Is there another system that might be preferable in terms of maximizing the overall happiness of the community? Support your answer.