[nawitus]

Hmm, I think there are two possible meanings of meritocracy:

a) those who can compete, succeed by merit b) everyone can compete, and those who compete, succeed by merit

It's clear that Silicon Valley doesn't fit the latter definition, but it's possible that it fits the first definition.

Even if 100% of American citizens could compete in the Silicon Valley's start-up culture and it would be a 100% perfect meritocracy, it still wouldn't necessarily be a global meritocracy. Just being born in the United States increases one's probability to gain access to this market.