The problem of trading merit is not only due to the people eager to buy it, but also to some of the high ranking people who got a lot of smerits to start with which they would have never managed to get by the way of their REAL merit. The low quality of some of these people is now confirmed by the fact that they are selling those smerits which they didn't deserve at all. They would never sell them if they had earned them by the way of good posting.