I'll have to go with 'citation needed'.
"each point increase in IQ test scores raises income by between $234 and $616 per year"
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289607...
and conscientiousness may even trump IQ when it comes to SES
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2009/06/does_personalit....
I know this is HN and we love to point and shout the names of informal fallacies, but maybe learning some formal ones would be useful, too.
If you are going to make a blanket statement in your thesis then pull back from its correctness then best not to spout the original as hard truth
But that better educated make more money
Get back to me when society stops tilted the economic success playing field against poor people, and offers them the same welfare we give the rich
Until then this 36 yr old, born and raised in a trailer park, college dropout with enough assets now to only have to work part time on contracts that interest me, while living in a city with higher than average cost of living, will call bs
That's just not an option for a lot of kids, and that has zilch to do with genes. But hey, keep thinking Ayn Rand's not full of shit, Hackernews :)
Does this prove IQ? No. however, I would be astounded if there was no relationship (just looks, voice, height, thought patterns, but no IQ correlation).
At the same time, my kids are quite different from each other. However, my siblings' kids reflect their parents and have diverged significantly from my family far more so than my kids diverge from each other.
My eldest brother (as an example), earned good money but spent it all. He put very little love or effort into his kids, despite him being raised in a household of caring and sharing. He's also a drinker and drug taker. His kids all have troubles with drugs and alcohol.
This is nothing like my family. We have continued down a path of caring and sharing and support quite a few community activities.
I'm not inclined to equate IQ directly, but, I am strongly inclined to say "there is a lot more than just looks that gets passed down to children".
My eldest sister is a behavioural clone of her biological mother. They didn't know each other until their 20s. That was the moment I knew that behaviour could be inherited by children, because my eldest sister is an aggressive hedonist. No drugs, just wild partying and ladette behaviour.
The other aspect of this article that is true is that luck favours the prepared. Some people send their kids to private schools so they can Mingle with other well-to-dos.
What I do like about today's society is that there is a wealth of opportunity if you look for it, regardless of socioeconomic status. I am a huge believer in opportunity but I totally reject political correctness (and any other prejudice for that matter, PC just happens to be the most popular prejudice today).
And while I'm sure lifestyle factors (including nurture, environment) may impact the "degree" to which the expression of these genes "take hold on behaviour", the overall probabilities are more likely to be based on the genetics. I'm thinking similar to how genes increase likelihood of getting cancer, while behaviour/lifestyle can affect treatment outcomes.
A quick google study yields "Using 15 years of data on Finnish twins, we find that 24% (54%) of the variance of women’s (men’s) lifetime income is due to genetic factors and that the contribution of the shared environment is negligible."[0] But I don't want to claim this is the final word, it's just the kind of evidence that is useful rather than blithe assertions and name calling.
[0] https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/38881/HECER...
When you have evidence that the supposedly smart and highly moral are guilty of oppressing an entire swath of people and you point at mostly economic markers without controlling for bad behavior by the "haves" you're just skewing your own results
That rich do better within our culture, which is rigged to give the rich an advantage, it doesn't say much to whether they are truly smarter
While poor people focus on immediate needs
There's plenty of rigorous research in this area to show that being poor and struggling actually creates mental barriers to achieving success
I'm going to keep leaning on that versus the blog post of some objectivist who peddles around stats to make up whatever argument fits his world view
Nope. "Computer Gene." No other explanation.
It's interesting that you say your parents "encouraged" your nerdiness and didn't say they "instilled" nerdiness in you. It implies there was something innate to start with.
Perhaps there is a set of genes linking curiosity, detail-orientation, problem solving that are at the core of people that become engineers, programmers etc?
In seriousness, it's frustrating that you're making such a bold assertion about causality. There are more male executives than female. Are you saying that's caused by genetics?
There are also many more males at a very low IQ than there are females.
I don't know why people downvote the parent comment, just because it's not exactly fair that people aren't born equal, doesn't mean we have to just sweep it under the rug.
The causes of wealth, scholastic performance, etc. are quite important for policy. Therefore we should hold a higher burden of proof for causal inference on those topics than, say, the communication mechanisms of ants.
It's not that folks are sweeping differences under the rug. It's that they're saying the differences might not be the things you're saying they are.
After that I would say it's economic and social class.
Of course genes play some role, but there's a pretty low correlation for inherited IQ anyhow.
It's also a matter of genes. Actually, mostly a matter of genes because this is by far the biggest influence parents have on their kids. Affluent parents pass high IQ and conscientiousness to their children which are critical for the rest of their lives. That's why, as anyone who skimmed the twin studies or maybe on of these new fancy GWAS can explain, rich children increasingly exit the womb better prepared to succeed in life and they stay that way. (That and the fact that we removed most of environmental instults.)
It doesn't end there either. They will also be wealthier, healthier, and live longer. "All good things tend to go together, as do all bad ones."