In Today’s Economy, It Seems Like IQ Is More Important Than Ever

As the S&P 500 notches yet another high (for the 6th year in a row and counting), it seems like IQ is becoming more important than ever in our post-2008 economy. People are falling behind because of low IQs, in an economy and free market that bestows great riches upon some and not a whole lot for everyone else. Today’s hyper-meritocracy is amplifying the socioeconomic ramifications of individual cognitive differences such that a person with an IQ >110 is much more likely to succeed than someone with an IQ <90 , whereas decades ago the divide wasn't so obvious. The people who are getting rich from the perpetually rising stock market and expensive real estate, in regions such as the Bay Area and New York, are predominantly people of above average IQ. Same for wages, of which smarter people in high-IQ professions are earning more, as everyone else (those who are not of the cognitive elite) have generally seen their wages lag inflation. Some talk about a Silicon Valley secession plan, but – as evidenced by the huge gains in real estate in Palo Alto, Atherton, and the Bay Area, in general – it’s already happening. Washington answers to Silicon Valley, not the other away around, and the 2016 GOP candidates are bending over backwards to appease our new tech elite. As alluded by Charles Murray’s book Coming Apart, the smart and rich will continue to separate from the rest of of America, both culturally and financially, creating enclaves of prosperity, wealth creation, and intellectual enlightenment. Those, especially on the left, who seek another financial crisis to ‘reset’ the system to a more egalitarian state will be disappointed as such crisis, contrary to media hype, are very rare. So what will happen is the future will be like today, but more so. That means stocks will keep going up, higher Bay Area real estate prices, higher web 2.0 valuations, rich getting richer, IQ being more important than ever, more pain at the pump, rising tuition & healthcare, ..etc. Dragging your feet as we cross the Rubicon to our increasingly financialized, technologized, and quantized world will be most unproductive. Thaat’s why I am long stock, that’s why I’m trying to learn to code ,that’s why I’m trying to be a part of the system instead of a pawn of it.

Related: Winner-Take-All Nation