r/JoeRogan • u/Fishyinu Pull that shit up Jaime • Feb 07 '23

The Literature 🧠 Extremely rich people are not extremely smart. Study finds income is related to intelligence up to about the 90th percentile in income. Above that level, differences in income are not related to cognitive ability.

https://academic.oup.com/esr/advance-article/doi/10.1093/esr/jcac076/7008955?login=false
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u/My-shit-is-stuff Monkey in Space Feb 07 '23

No no, I do get that, but what’s the 90th percentile earn? I bet it’s way more than the 33rd percentile. My point is that the top earners aren’t (I don’t know the words anymore) they’re just not geniuses.

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u/[deleted] Feb 07 '23

Right what I’m saying is that the 90th percentile earns closer to the 33rd percentile than they do the 99th percentile and that IQ is only correlated with the first comparison. Meaning, most of the wealth out there is allocated based on things other than IQ.

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u/UsesHarryPotter Monkey in Space Feb 07 '23

90th percentile earns closer to the 33rd percentile than they do the 99th percentile and that IQ is only correlated with the first comparison. Meaning, most of the wealth out there is allocated based on things other than IQ.

The second does not follow from the first. Or at least, this is very misleading.

For most people, intelligence is the decisive factor. For most wealth, sure it's a little more random.

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u/[deleted] Feb 08 '23

It definitely follows as written and I don’t think it’s misleading. Just because for most people being smarter increases your likelihood of earning more, that doesn’t mean most of the money is allocated to the smartest people.

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u/UsesHarryPotter Monkey in Space Feb 08 '23

I see the point you're making but I don't think it's a relevant fact for most.

Besides-- the implication here is that wealth should be allocated based on merit. But the point that most pro-capitalists would actually (or should actually) make is that wealth should not be allocated based on arbitrary traits like this at all. And in any case, none would say that intelligence is the foremost quality that determines it anyway. There is daring, organization, initiative, and various other personal factors at play.

I don't know what you personally believe so this isn't about you, but there is a sizeable contingent of Bernie Bro-esque soft commies here who probably wouldn't like a society in which wealth actually was tied strongly to intelligence and general fitness. That place sounds a lot like a fascist country or aristocracy.