• Are social classes beginning to develop based on intelligence?
    8 replies, posted
I had been discussing this topic with a friend of mine, whom is a sociology grad student, and we both agreed that there is indeed a divide between those of above-average, average, and below-average intelligence. The book "The Bell Curve" (1994, Herrnstein, Murray) discussed this topic in great length, and made quite a case to prove that there is indeed a sort of caste system developing among the "cognitive elite". It is becoming quite apparent that those who have degrees, (BA, Masters, doctorate, etc.) tend to have a better standard of living than those who do not. While this is mainly due to income, it seems that those who hold these higher paying jobs are those who are the most intelligent. It also seems that those of above-average intelligence seem to mainly mate with those of above-average intelligence, further propagating the divide. I digress, this is just my opinion, I am quite interested in hearing your own opinions Facepunch. [HTML]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve[/HTML]
I think the term "social darwinism" might come into play here. I do agree to a degree though, it would probably be understandable that many people with good salaries got that far through education, such as degrees from universities. However, that doesn't mean the system is perfectly true. "Dumb" people might have high paying jobs from inheritance (such as being the son of an owner of a large business), and "smart" people may be in a poor socio-economic status due to certain circumstances, of which could be anything. However that could be seen as being consequences based on a stupid decision for example, so it may be an irrelevant argument. In some countries (such as Australia), there are some jobs that offer good pay but are actually based off of physical output, not mental. Such a job is working as a miner, miners get large salaries and you could say that they do because of the riskiness and intensity of the job. Not saying that all miners are stupid, but I doubt many of them would be considered intellectuals either. There are many other jobs here which are well paying for physical outputs, many apprenticeships lead to such jobs.
I agree with what you're saying. I believe that because of the growth of population and the increase in the quality of living that we have now (at least in the western world), we no longer have trouble with simply trying to stay alive. We've sort of shifted away from a system that is divided by our wealth or the social class of our family or such. Because education is now open for everyone, eventually the only thing that will divide humans from each other is our intellectual level and personal interests, not only does this mean what diploma's we have, but also I find that more intelligent people generally have a different way of looking at the world. I think this is a good thing after all though.
I think its simply being part of environments, a Doctor has to be intelligent, so thats a given, but basically, lemme put it like this. A doctor is more likely to date a fellow doctor or similarly intelligent person, becaues they have common interests and common views and are compatible. Just like how a Cop is probably more likely to marry another Cop, because they yet again, share common interests and such. You are a product of your environment, is basically what I'm trying to say, you hangout with intelligent people, hangout with doctors, and associate yourself with them, you're likely to become one and/or date one. This goes for any group and anything. Its not really rocket science. (Not to sound like a dick to you) If you're brought up with racists, you'll probably become racist, and probably want to date someone who shares similar views. [editline]25th December 2011[/editline] Or hey, Intelligent people are more likely to go with Intelligent people, because yet again, common interests, common things, stuff can talk about or relate to. Why would an open minded intelligent young man or woman want to date a close-minded hillbilly redneck? Extreme examples I know, but my point stands. You date and interact with people you like, because you agree with or accept them.
To be fair, sometimes idiots get a lot of money and power and abuse it. It's not ALWAYS about power, sometimes people get it via aggression. And intelligence isn't relative to IQ, IQ implies one has a good or bad memory. How you USE this information is purely based on your true intelligence. So yeah, I think intelligence leads to a far better job generally, but there are times when it doesn't always do that. take Rick Perry for example, his entire political career is a really bad joke. Now look at Louis CK, he is an insanely smart, OK guy and makes a lot of money from it.
Rich people are born into wealth and have better education/mind-training. Better education/mind-training leads to better jobs. Better jobs lead to more money. Although it's true that the difference between these educations isn't that big. Yeah, you're right. Regarding coupling: People tend to enjoy what they are good at, people who are more intelligent are better at mental things, making them enjoy them more. You search for a partner based on common ground. So, you want someone with similarity to your hobbies Since they're shifted to the mental, your partner's are as well. But if the partner's hobbies are shifted to the mental, then it's likely her mental capacity is superior to the average ie. more intelligent than the average. Couple that with the fact that more mental people think more, thus, generate more ideas, and that those will probably differ from someone who doesn't think as much (causing a ideological shock with anyone unless to those who think as he (those people are probably more intelligent as they required more thought). Jesus fuck, that's really incoherent, isn't it?
Well this has always existed The most recent example of it is Blue Collar, White Collar, Gold Collar While less rooted in 'intelligence', there's certainly a level of technical capability inherent in each professional climate
The upper class tends to have more educated people because they can afford it. The kids can concentrate on school because they don't need jobs and the parents can pay for the fancy colleges and private schools. Social class(wealth) isn't gained through intelligence. You can grow up a slow learner and still make bank if that's what you've been trained to do your whole life.
[QUOTE=Rubs10;33902629]The upper class tends to have more educated people because they can afford it. The kids can concentrate on school because they don't need jobs and the parents can pay for the fancy colleges and private schools. Social class(wealth) isn't gained through intelligence. You can grow up a slow learner and still make bank if that's what you've been trained to do your whole life.[/QUOTE] this although often times degrees and things are based more on persistence and ability to study than ACTUAL intelligence, if you get what I mean. It's more about motivation and willpower. There are plenty of "not-so-intelligent" doctors out there. Med school just trains them well.
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