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by sokoloff 885 days ago
What is the relationship across those income ranges between income and parental IQ?

https://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/08/least-surprising-cor...

Saying that SAT scores correlate closely with income in response to someone claiming that SAT scores measure IQ could be a statement of agreement or disagreement, depending on the relationships among the various measures.
1 comments
StreetChief 885 days ago
I am disagreeing - why would more money make you inherently smarter? His premise that smart parents make more more is unquestionably false when 99% (or something) of wealth is transferred via inheritance - people don't generally get rich anymore[1].

Also, if you want to measure IQ, why not use an IQ test and not some arbitrary proxy?

[1] http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/papers/abs_mobility_p...

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sokoloff 885 days ago
It's not that more money would make you inherently smarter, but rather that more intelligent parents might (statistically) both make more money and also have more intelligent children.

Those children might go on to score better on the SAT, leaving a correlation between parental income and SAT scores that would be unsurprising at each step.

Your point about inherited wealth is not demonstrated on the chart you showed, which was parental incomes (not wealth) and in ranges unlikely to be perturbed by vast inheritances.

> Also, if you want to measure IQ, why not use an IQ test and not some arbitrary proxy?

I don't want to; I suspect colleges and D. E. Shaw felt like SAT scores were an acceptable/practical proxy for whatever purpose it was that they had. I thought it was weird and slightly off-putting to be asked, but it seems to work for them.

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StreetChief 885 days ago
You are certainly correct it is working for them - the concentration of wealth is getting worse and worse.

[edit 1: added the below]

I don't think the best idea in the room wins - the most persuasive person's idea usually wins.

[edit 2: added the below]

Harvard's endowment in 2022 was apparently $50.9 billion.[1]

[1]https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-lis...

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sokoloff 885 days ago
I'm trying to draw the connection between the size of Harvard's endowment and this sub-thread and missing it.
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StreetChief 885 days ago
using the SATs has made them very wealthy - but nevermind, all schools use SATs.

[edit] I should have quoted de shaw's wealth

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