It's likely that another variable, work ethic, is correlated with cognitive ability, and thus is a confounder with regard to wealth in a causal model. A genetic covariance between IQ and diligence could conceivably have been selected for prehistorically. Alternatively in complex societies, the feedback of wealth to cognitively superior persons could simply incentivize diligence.
Daniel Markovitz the author of "The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite" was on Sam Harris' podcast this week.
I haven't listened to it yet. Sam Harris is "red-pilled" on IQ. I wonder how that podcast went. I'll give it a listen.
Meritocracy is racist! We must insist more unintelligent lazy people be appointed to positions of power!!!
It's likely that another variable, work ethic, is correlated with cognitive ability, and thus is a confounder with regard to wealth in a causal model. A genetic covariance between IQ and diligence could conceivably have been selected for prehistorically. Alternatively in complex societies, the feedback of wealth to cognitively superior persons could simply incentivize diligence.
Meritocracy is racist so we need to replace it with kakistocracy.
This is excellent. Thank you for the summary. This is a great article to keep in mind.
Daniel Markovitz the author of "The Meritocracy Trap: How America's Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite" was on Sam Harris' podcast this week.
I haven't listened to it yet. Sam Harris is "red-pilled" on IQ. I wonder how that podcast went. I'll give it a listen.
Re: "maybe the grading standards have been eroded to hide social gaps etc." -- the 70s and 80s saw a rapid alteration in school standards in Britain, likely lowering the ceiling for IQ. Cf. https://tidesofhistory.com/2021/04/20/james-callaghan-and-the-great-education-debate/