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It Turns Out That The Smartest People Do Run The US
Business Insider ^
| 05/01/2014
| JONATHAN WAI
Posted on 05/01/2014 7:17:25 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind
What the author seems to ignore, or at least fail to realize, is that for any massive group, like the 330 million Americans, getting to The Top is intensively competitive. Even at the top 1% in cognitive ability, there are 3.3 million people to compete with. If all 3.3 million of the top 1% in cognitive ability were to go for Congressional seats, the odds of any random person from that group getting in are still about 1 in 7500. You need luck, skill, ambition, friends, money, proper habits, and infrastructure to be the top of 7500 similarly-skilled people. There's far more to it than "being smart" (and many measures of intelligence).
Really, the more amazing story is the large number of people in Congress who are in the bottom quartile... Sheila Jackson-Lee almost certainly has to be one of those. We can all name several others.
21
posted on
05/01/2014 7:51:18 AM PDT
by
Teacher317
(We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
To: SeekAndFind
Intelligence is nothing without wisdom.
22
posted on
05/01/2014 8:00:29 AM PDT
by
ryan71
(The Partisans)
To: SeekAndFind
23
posted on
05/01/2014 8:01:27 AM PDT
by
Liberty Valance
(Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
To: SeekAndFind
Of course I.Q. correlates to power & wealth. But the critical factor is how one uses both the intelligence one inherits, and the material benefits that one obtains by use. There are many in our political "leadership," who had enough intelligence to either obtain a position of influence, or to garner attention from someone able to place them in a high position, for a variety of motives.
From the standpoint of good governance, however, it is critical that the subject be able to apply their intelligence to the actual realities of this world, as they apply to the situation & interests of those to whom the subjects' duty lie.
Unfortunately, far too many of those who were born with decent intelligence, today--even many in that upper 1%--have been so conditioned, that their fears or compulsions reduce their functional intellect to that comparable to those on the opposite side of the "Bell Curve."
Some years ago, I coined the term "dysrons" to describe this type. They are very evident, every time we see our Government or the news media, go off on a new tangent, which seems inexplicable to anyone with intelligence enough to learn from human experience. These intellectual misfits, regardless of their I.Q.s, are destroying the West.
William Flax
24
posted on
05/01/2014 8:10:05 AM PDT
by
Ohioan
To: SeekAndFind
they are also dangerous psychopaths with no morals or character
25
posted on
05/01/2014 8:15:29 AM PDT
by
yldstrk
( My heroes have always been cowboys)
To: Teacher317
Also that using these selective, “elite” institutions as a criteria introduces another entire factor.
Even if the education you get at Stanford, Harvard or Yale is no better than at Podunk Jr. College, the people you meet and befriend at those institutions are going to *GREATLY* influence your odds of climbing the ladder; indeed that is the payoff for spending $50K a year - not the education, the connections.
26
posted on
05/01/2014 8:15:30 AM PDT
by
RedStateRocker
(Nuke Mecca, deport all illegal aliens, abolish the IRS, DEA and ATF.)
To: Svartalfiar
The converse is not necessarily true. If a high percentage of those who run things are highly intelligent, it does not follow logically that a high percentage of those who are intelligent run things.
Need proof? A Mensa meeting is all the proof you'd need.
27
posted on
05/01/2014 8:20:28 AM PDT
by
grania
To: Regulator
Puff piece to legitimize the oligarchy? Us Big Guyz is Smarter Than Youz Little Guyz, So Knuckle Under
That's exactly what it is.
Fortunately, our oligarchs are true populists whose every thought, word, and deed is for the benefit of the helpless, dispossessed, common man . . . except for those awful rednecks, of course.
28
posted on
05/01/2014 8:26:09 AM PDT
by
Zionist Conspirator
(The Left: speaking power to truth since Shevirat HaKelim.)
To: SeekAndFind
Senators smarter than House members? Shows me this whole thing is bogus.
29
posted on
05/01/2014 8:28:03 AM PDT
by
sheana
To: SeekAndFind
We might have a lot of intelligent people at the top of our corporations or government, but not all of them are wise. In fact, Id say many are FOOLISH.
I concur. Here, in WA State, we have Patty Murray. DIM.
30
posted on
05/01/2014 8:30:43 AM PDT
by
Parmy
To: SeekAndFind
Individuals were deemed to be in the top 1% of ability if they attended an undergraduate or graduate school that had extremely high average standardized test scores that put the typical person well within the top 1% Let me get this right. So if you finish last in your class at a top school, you are in the top 1%?
I call bullshit.
To: GraceG
“Id rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than by the dons of Harvard.
-—William F. Buckley, Jr.
Washington went back to the farm. Everyone in DC should sent back where they came from.
32
posted on
05/01/2014 8:48:17 AM PDT
by
SC_Pete
To: SeekAndFind
It Turns Out That The Smartest People Do Run The US Methinks JONATHAN WAI must've drank a Big Gulp size glass of the kool aid! If the smartest people run the US, then we've really dumbed down - case in point - Idiot Joe Biden!
33
posted on
05/01/2014 8:57:45 AM PDT
by
The Sons of Liberty
("Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle?" - Patrick Henry, 1775)
To: bigdaddy45
No, it means if you work your tail off, then maybe you can someday have that senate seat. Nothing is handed to you (unless youre a Kennedy[or a Bush, Clinton, big-name Dem, eRepub, etc]).
I wasn't serious there, I'm 25 with no business-running experience. I wouldn't really want to jump into a big-company CEO position, I'd be mostly clueless.
Smart people rise to high positions.
Exactly. They rise to high positions, because most smart people are smart enough to know that a combination of intelligence, work ethic, and grease n dirt on your hands is how you get ahead in life. Intelligence is just one component of the cream that floats.
To: Svartalfiar
Or is your question really, how can I impress Freepers with my outstanding intellect?
35
posted on
05/01/2014 9:03:36 AM PDT
by
OldPossum
("It's" is the contraction of "it" and "is"; think about ITS implications.)
To: SeaHawkFan
Let me get this right. So if you finish last in your class at a top school, you are in the top 1%?
Q: What do you call the guy who graduates last in his class at Johns Hopkins?
A: Doctor.
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