Merits are given to users who used to post constructive and useful topics. But the hard thing is how to earn those merits? Sometimes even if a user posted a good quality post, others do not care to give merit, or maybe those that are able to give merit doesnt have a chance to read that post. Because of that merit requirement, we cannot rank up. Even i have a problem with that. I only have 12 merits for now and still need to have 88 merits to have a full member rank. And i think i will be stuck on this position. I think the best thing i can do is to improve my post amd work hard to get those merits.
I think your difficulty highlights one of the current problems with the merit system, and Theymos has posted that he is aware of it, and is acting to rectify the situation. You post on the legal and economics boards, and those are useful and valuable assets to Bitcoin Talk in my opinion. Unfortunately they are not frequented by the merit awarders, and one of the reasons that Talk Merit was created was to allow Jet Cash the time to spend on both of those boards, and hopefully he can award merits where they are deserved.
Please continue to support those boards, and perhaps you could look at the serious discussion board as well.