Agreed, in full honesty, it is actual merit, because it is work applied to learning and succeeding. And I also agree with the underlying implications of your sa

Agreed, in full honesty, it is actual merit, because it is work applied to learning and succeeding. And I also agree with the underlying implications of your sarcasm: our system blows because it will never be able to sort us based on our inborn potential, only the results of the application of resources with which our parents were able to provide us. Although to continue with the honesty, sorting based on inborn potential sounds vaguely dystopian.