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It’s funny how that article doesn’t mention the most obvious reason - it turns out intelligent people generally don’t get jobs as janitors, retail workers, or o

It’s funny how that article doesn’t mention the most obvious reason - it turns out intelligent people generally don’t get jobs as janitors, retail workers, or other minimum-ish wage jobs. Those intelligent people then have intelligent babies. For some reason a large part of our society doesn’t want to acknowledge that genetics (highly) influence intelligence.

DiogenesKynikos 3y ago
Anyone who has lived in the real world knows that the conditions in which you grow up have a massive effect on where you end up. There are entire communities of people who live in deep poverty. It's not because they're all - uniformly down to the last person - dumb. The parents are poor, don't have a high-quality education, work long hours, can't afford tutoring, can't help their children with their coursework, etc. There are entire countries trapped in poverty. China was desperately poor until just a generation ago. Did Chinese people suddenly become smart for some reason? Which is the next country that will magically go from being filled with dumb people to being filled with smart people? As I said, just a bit of experience with the real world and critical thought will show that your explanation is nonsense.
- jpadkins 3y ago
  > Did Chinese people suddenly become smart for some reason? Yes, they stopped following strict communism. They pivoted to authoritarian capitalism and got wealthier.
- Auracle 3y ago
  I wasn't talking about different countries. Obviously there are issues that can hold large geographic regions down. (Basically) no intelligent teenager in America is held down by poverty. My parents were relatively poor, didn't go to college, worked long hours, and I went to a public school and certainly didn't have any tutoring and didn't receive much help with homework. I did well enough on my ACT to go to a private college for pretty close to free. Even if that doesn't happen you can go to a state school that doesn't need great grades, take out loans for the entire amount, get a degree for a good paying job, and suddenly you're out of poverty.

DiogenesKynikos 3y ago

Anyone who has lived in the real world knows that the conditions in which you grow up have a massive effect on where you end up. There are entire communities of people who live in deep poverty. It's not because they're all - uniformly down to the last person - dumb. The parents are poor, don't have a high-quality education, work long hours, can't afford tutoring, can't help their children with their coursework, etc. There are entire countries trapped in poverty. China was desperately poor until just a generation ago. Did Chinese people suddenly become smart for some reason? Which is the next country that will magically go from being filled with dumb people to being filled with smart people? As I said, just a bit of experience with the real world and critical thought will show that your explanation is nonsense.

jpadkins 3y ago
> Did Chinese people suddenly become smart for some reason? Yes, they stopped following strict communism. They pivoted to authoritarian capitalism and got wealthier.
Auracle 3y ago
I wasn't talking about different countries. Obviously there are issues that can hold large geographic regions down. (Basically) no intelligent teenager in America is held down by poverty. My parents were relatively poor, didn't go to college, worked long hours, and I went to a public school and certainly didn't have any tutoring and didn't receive much help with homework. I did well enough on my ACT to go to a private college for pretty close to free. Even if that doesn't happen you can go to a state school that doesn't need great grades, take out loans for the entire amount, get a degree for a good paying job, and suddenly you're out of poverty.