The kernel of this book is a compelling idea - that "meritocracy" is an unattainable ideal and the belief that we've attained it leads to horrible outcomes. Unfortunately Sandel stretches this book beyond that, claiming with at best circumstantial and often purely imagined justifications that the idea of merit itself is responsible for white America's current ills.

I say white America because Sandel doesn't address the radically different patterns that exist outside of the US and western Europe, and within the US anyone other than white people. The fact that non-college educated Black people, for example, voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election? Or that when included with white voters the fact that non-college educated people only preferred Trump by 7%? Not mentioned.

Beyond these cherry-picked stylized facts, Sandel conflates the current meaning of "merit" with its philosophical ideal, continuing to lump in issues with the current merit dogma with issues of income inequality. That's not to say there's not some relationship, but Sandel's assertion that this is the direct cause of massive income inequality in the US is made without any evidence beyond armchair reasoning and strains credulity given the voluminous research on the problem that he could have read/referenced.

There's a lot more I could complain about, but suffice to say that once you've digested the core point of the book you can probably stop reading. I'm sure Sandel has given recorded talks on the book which will probably convey the point better than the book itself and will avoid many of the more problematic claims it contains.