Practical Implications

Vlastos states in regard to MP in section IV, “Since merit is unequal, to justify MP is to justify unequal rights in respect of praise. Because persons have equal rights to well-being and to freedom, then, in the special circumstances of distributing praise for merit their right to this particular good is unequal.” I understand this and how he concludes this in respect to MP being unequal and how MP enhances production and let’s one express their freedom in their own way according to their own desires. But he goes on to talk about practical implications for MP, and this is where I get confused with a couple of them. I may have missed something in the reading dealing with these, but I just do not see how they connect. He says that we may justly distribute praise unequally according to merit, this one I understand, the entire essay is concerned with this. But the next practical implication he says is, it tells us what we may not do; How so? And it warns us against confusing merit for human worth which I can see. If one is praising the “human” and not the “action” one can be seen as superior. But the last one he says, it’s against allowing merit to swamp human worth, what does this mean?