Well I don't know wheather someone has asked this before or not but as well all know that one day all the sMerits will get over since only half of the Merit sent gets converted into sMerit , so what will be the next step to get them back? How will you refill the sMerits ?
Our merit wont be refilled per month, only certain people called 'sources' that have their sMerit refilled per month basis. Currently we have 57 merit sources with a total merit generation of up to 11975 sMerit per 30 days and with that number can be used, i guess it is enough to rank up worthy users of jr. member to member rank. So dont be discouraged by the number of it, try to make a quality things and you will earn some. You can read it here
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=merit;stats