No test measures intelligence. A test only measures you relative to the persons that wrote the test. – loosely quoting Asimov.
2007 is ancient history now. It is an interesting graph that one might correlate with a lack of meritocratic structure in society, but I’m on the low end cause I say this without looking up and reading the study. Pretty pictures evoke emotional blabbering bias and all that.


I’ve said for a long time that intelligence isn’t the number one trait for becoming filthy rich. It’s lack of a moral compass.
Ya got a source though? Like everyone knows sociopaths are great at CEO and other executive roles, but what does the same plot look like for ethics
Nope. But if I believe it it’s true. That how it works now right?
Seriously, no chart but there seem to be plenty of examples and few exceptions. There are something like 2700 billionaires in the world. I certainly am not familiar with all of them.
But also I have seen opportunities to improve my financial standing in ways that are not ethical. I did not take them. I assume others do.
So in conclusion, it’s just observation. Do you disagree with the assessment or are you looking for proof?
Also in my defense, I said it was something I said, not something I could prove.
I have a counter anecdote!
Worked for a rich family as the sysadmin at their business. They would refuse to make unethical decisions. First manager’s meeting I sat we had a choice of screwing our clients, just a little, thereby making up on some money we were losing. Or, we could leave things as they were. VP looked around the table, “Well. Guess we have to do the right thing.”
I always got tickets to a charity ball at the beach. The family was top donors and wouldn’t show up. They were true believers in the Biblical admonition to STFU about your charity and just do it.
Guess there exceptions to every rule.
ask them how their family got rich
Anecdotes aren’t evidence, and we all have anecdotes, but a counter anecdote would be I have seen people who take unethical choices experience reduced income due to loss of job offers, dismissal from existing jobs, criminal penalties, loss of contacts and relationships.
i think the lack of moral compass is just an enabler, what actually causes someone to amass such obscene wealth is wanting that much money. An even remotely normal person outright has no actual desire for it, they’d reach a level of wealth that will comfortably support the lifestyle they desire and just live off of that.
These turborich shits have some reason to desire the obscene wealth, either they simply have no actual end to the luxuries they desire or they feel that wealth is straight up equal to value as a person, or somesuch.
Just imagine having a billion dollars, a thousand million dollars. Why the fuck would you keep putting in any sort of work to get more money? Investing a tenth of it would give you a constant income that most people can’t even dream of. Any person with a billion dollars should never even think about the concept of money again, they can buy anything they want save most countries and never ever ever ever have to worry about affording it.
Yeah, I agree. I always thought if I could ask a billionaire one questions it would be, “How much is enough?” Then I realized, I know the answer to that question. There’s never enough. What a real shame. They could live so extravagantly and still do so much good with the rest, but they would rather spend it crushing people and looking down on them for some ridiculous notion that they’re world builders or something.
Bezos said in an interview that he had so much money the only thing he could really spend it on was space travel. I’m like, how about paying your employees a living wage and letting them use the toilet you asshat!