How would you the question if some segment in our population is inherently 'more meritable'? There are many obvious confounding factors (culture, education, opp

How would you the question if some segment in our population is inherently 'more meritable'? There are many obvious confounding factors (culture, education, opportunity, racism) that are very hard to correct for. The Nobel prize is only given to people with exceptional performance, so the sample size will be quite small. Regardless of the answer to the question posed by you, it seems to me that we should stay true to the wishes of Alfred Nobel, who stated that a series of prizes should be conferred to those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind". Since he is the one that provided the funding for this award, I think this award should be awarded according to that measure.