We know very little about what the rich actually think, surely nothing like what transpires from their public declarations. I’ve always been thinking that the rich and the powerful are not smarter than the average commoner, such as you and I. But just the fact that they are average means that the smart ones among them must understand what’s going on. And what are they going to do about the chaos to come? They have much more power than us, and whatever they decide to do will affect us all.
A most excellent piece. I agree with you that the rich and powerful are in general no smarter than the average "commoner." They have obviously been more successful at amassing wealth (usually = power), but I see three basic reasons for that.
Many simply "chose their ancestors well," inheriting their wealth. This says nothing about their intelligence or competence.
Some (many/most?) simply have fewer scruples than the rest of us. This is not related to intelligence or competence either, unless one considers that a willingness to violate society's norms is some perverted form of that. There are certain things most of us will not do even for vast sums.
Finally we must acknowledge that there are those who have truly earned their wealth by virtue of an extraordinary accomplishment, invention, or product. Even then, all we can say about them is that they are good at that one thing, or are good at turning it into wealth. But they are just as likely as the rest of us to be mediocre at other things.
You commented that when the rich Romans saw that things were going really out of control, they scrambled to save themselves while, at the same time, denying that things were as bad as they looked.
Perhaps this is not denial, but mere acceptance of the fact that even if one is rich and powerful, there are still limits to his ability to control the world around him. But to regain such control as might preserve him, he must cut himself off from almost everything, and what kind of life would that be?
Hello Ugo and commentators... somewhat related to this post, and the latest Oxfam report on how (the Big B) billionaires got richer during the pandemic while (the very small b) billions who suffer poverty every day lost ground to rising prices for basics... If I understand current economics correctly, about 100 families own about as much wealth as all the families in the poorer half of the entire world. And those few hundred individuals are getting a bit nervous about the rest of us .
IDK if Ugo's series on exterminations is on Substack.com or Blogger.com but it's time to find it and reread it ... ArtDeco
Hum... I'm not so sure that 'the rich' exist so much as a politically coherent group...
It's much more likely that, the more the situation will become desperate, the more different factions among the elite will compete to stay in power.
And as it is usually the case, each faction will relie on some of the impoverished population to fight on its behalf for whatever left of the resources.
About "the wealthy not being more intelligent", I recalled reading this about my former Governor and President some time ago:
"First, Bush is definitely intelligent. The IQ estimates range between 111.1 and 138.5, with an average around 125. That places him in the upper range of college graduates in raw intellect (Cronbach, 1960). Admittedly, this average is influenced by Cox's (1926) corrected scores, which may be overestimates. Yet even if we focus on just the uncorrected IQs, the range is between 111.1 and 128.5, with a mean around 120, which is about the average IQ for a college graduate in the United States. In addition, the figure is more than one standard deviation above the population mean, placing Bush in the upper 10% of the intelligence distribution (Storfer, 1990). These results endorse what has been claimed on the basis of his SAT scores and his Harvard MBA, namely, that his IQ most likely exceeds 115 (Immelman, 2001). He is certainly smart enough to be president of the United States (Simonton, 1985)" https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gary/iq.html
Take that for whatever it is worth.
Who thinks George W. Bush is smarter than the average rich person? I surely do not.
Rich people clearly select mates for this characteristic. Historically, rich people have selected mates for their children, too.
If the non-rich average IQ is 100, then the rich person's average IQ should be 115, like what they are granting "Dubya" as a base-estimate.
You should read the books written by : Monique Pinçon-Charlot & Michel Pinçon, two french sociologists who studied rich & powerful people during their whole life... Very interesting...
A most excellent piece. I agree with you that the rich and powerful are in general no smarter than the average "commoner." They have obviously been more successful at amassing wealth (usually = power), but I see three basic reasons for that.
Many simply "chose their ancestors well," inheriting their wealth. This says nothing about their intelligence or competence.
Some (many/most?) simply have fewer scruples than the rest of us. This is not related to intelligence or competence either, unless one considers that a willingness to violate society's norms is some perverted form of that. There are certain things most of us will not do even for vast sums.
Finally we must acknowledge that there are those who have truly earned their wealth by virtue of an extraordinary accomplishment, invention, or product. Even then, all we can say about them is that they are good at that one thing, or are good at turning it into wealth. But they are just as likely as the rest of us to be mediocre at other things.
You commented that when the rich Romans saw that things were going really out of control, they scrambled to save themselves while, at the same time, denying that things were as bad as they looked.
Perhaps this is not denial, but mere acceptance of the fact that even if one is rich and powerful, there are still limits to his ability to control the world around him. But to regain such control as might preserve him, he must cut himself off from almost everything, and what kind of life would that be?
Hello Ugo and commentators... somewhat related to this post, and the latest Oxfam report on how (the Big B) billionaires got richer during the pandemic while (the very small b) billions who suffer poverty every day lost ground to rising prices for basics... If I understand current economics correctly, about 100 families own about as much wealth as all the families in the poorer half of the entire world. And those few hundred individuals are getting a bit nervous about the rest of us .
IDK if Ugo's series on exterminations is on Substack.com or Blogger.com but it's time to find it and reread it ... ArtDeco
Hum... I'm not so sure that 'the rich' exist so much as a politically coherent group...
It's much more likely that, the more the situation will become desperate, the more different factions among the elite will compete to stay in power.
And as it is usually the case, each faction will relie on some of the impoverished population to fight on its behalf for whatever left of the resources.
About "the wealthy not being more intelligent", I recalled reading this about my former Governor and President some time ago:
"First, Bush is definitely intelligent. The IQ estimates range between 111.1 and 138.5, with an average around 125. That places him in the upper range of college graduates in raw intellect (Cronbach, 1960). Admittedly, this average is influenced by Cox's (1926) corrected scores, which may be overestimates. Yet even if we focus on just the uncorrected IQs, the range is between 111.1 and 128.5, with a mean around 120, which is about the average IQ for a college graduate in the United States. In addition, the figure is more than one standard deviation above the population mean, placing Bush in the upper 10% of the intelligence distribution (Storfer, 1990). These results endorse what has been claimed on the basis of his SAT scores and his Harvard MBA, namely, that his IQ most likely exceeds 115 (Immelman, 2001). He is certainly smart enough to be president of the United States (Simonton, 1985)" https://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~gary/iq.html
Take that for whatever it is worth.
Who thinks George W. Bush is smarter than the average rich person? I surely do not.
Rich people clearly select mates for this characteristic. Historically, rich people have selected mates for their children, too.
If the non-rich average IQ is 100, then the rich person's average IQ should be 115, like what they are granting "Dubya" as a base-estimate.
You should read the books written by : Monique Pinçon-Charlot & Michel Pinçon, two french sociologists who studied rich & powerful people during their whole life... Very interesting...
Here's a little more about those two scholars: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-45175-2_16
Thank you for this, I appreciated the chance to reread your essay.