Many people cannot appreciate how rare rare events are. The liberal media talks about financial crisis like it’s a common occurrence, yet in America there have only been two major financial crisis in the past 100 years, with an 80 year gap between them (1929 & 2008). It may be generations before there is a repeat of 2008. Until the establishment of the fed, there were many crisis in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. This is just another example of how the fed helps create economic environments conducive to the creation of wealth.
Like invoking Godwin’s law, it’s impossible to have a discussion about IQ and testing on a public forum without a dimwitted contributor repeating the leftist line that gives the cognitively inferior comfort, ‘I know so and so who is smart, but flamed out’ Yes, like your anecdotal evidence overrides the mountains of scientific research that shows that smart people, with few exceptions, make more money the less intelligent people. Through stocks, web 2.0, and real estate, high-IQ people are the ones making all the money in the post-2008 economy. For every person with a high IQ that does nothing, there are many more who make a lot of money and attain considerable success compared to the double digit masses. Success is measured by published work, recognition, income, net worth, etc.
The left is comfortable with the idea that individual attributes such as athletic ability and sexuality are determined prenatally, but IQ? No way. In the liberal world, people can’t choose their sexuality, but they should be able to choose to become a scientist, even with a double digit IQ, provided one practices enough and society makes the necessary accommodations, usually by lowering standards like through affirmative action
As iSteve notes, ironically, welfare liberals have turned their back on the meritocratic process that helped get Obama into law school. The meritocracy and standardized testing is met with a much more positive reception on high-IQ sites like Reddit and 4chan than on the Huffingtonpost and New York Times, so it’s not like all liberals are opposed to testing – just the dumber, further left ones who buy into the gladwellian feel-good nonsense. The welfare left – in their war on success, individual exceptionalism and free markets – would rather have society regress than have to face reality that some people are congenitally superior to others, and that smarter people are more important.
The Bell Curve is not just a science book, but a prophetic look at our more unequal future. It’s more relevant than ever, as much as the left wishes to pull the wool over the eyes of the public on sensitive subjects like IQ and how it pertains to a myriad of public policy issues such as crime, entitlement spending, education, and income inequality. I’m optimistic that the growing entitlement spending problem will necessitate an honest public intellectual debate on these matters as public opinion – especially among the smartest generation – rejects the Shibboleths of political correctness and egalitarianism.