From Fred Reed The 145 Solution
I agree we should restrict voting to high-IQ individuals and or a net worth above a certain threshold, but the odds of such a plan being implemented are close to zero.
The comments are interesting since they are an example of how successful the left, in their war on IQ, has been in their tireless mission to turn high-IQ into a handicap, that even people on the right side of the political spectrum are parroting the leftist lies about IQ. The left wants to believe IQ is not important or that high-IQ is inextricably tied with a handicap or deficiency. This is reasoning flawed for two reasons: the left has chosen, arbitrary, that social/emotional IQ is more important than cognitive ability, and second, that high-IQ individuals are somehow ethically compromised at a higher rate than the general population.
There are sociopaths on the Left Side of the Bell Curve, too. More than 80% of serial killers have a below average IQ, as do most inmates. From Wikipedia: Studies have suggested that serial killers generally have an average or low-average IQ, although they are often described, and perceived, as possessing IQs in the above-average range. A sample of 174 IQs of serial killers had a median IQ of 93; only serial killers who used bombs had an average IQ above the population mean.
From Psychology Today:
A fascinating recent study (link is external)suggests: “in many instances, smarter people are more vulnerable to thinking errors.” In fact, “more cognitively sophisticated participants [a fancy way to say ‘smart people’] showed larger bias blind spots.” The bias blind spot is essentially our ability to recognize other people’s flaws and mistakes.
This is the reasoning used by pop behavior psychologists, Dan Ariely, Daniel Kahneman and Gladwell, and finance fools Taleb and Shiller to downplay IQ – arguing that smart people aren’t really better because they fall for ‘stupidly obvious’ cognitive biases, thereby minimizing or negating all positive traits associated with high-IQ. I think occasionally falling for the conjunctive fallacy and ignoring the never-to-arrive Black Swan is a worthwhile trade-off for the cool technologies, financial innovation, companies and research that smart people bring to the world, boosting living standards and pushing the frontier of knowledge further to the right.
The Left Side consumes, and many of them are ‘takers’. Consumer spending is important, and these people are good for web 2.0 by using Facebook and Twitter, but they should have no say in how the country is run. High school dropouts, who tend to have the lowest IQs of all, vote Democratic more than republican. Consequentially, keeping low-IQ individuals away from the polls could help put a dent in the entitlement spending problem since these ‘takers’ will not be able to vote for candidates that will grow the welfare state at the expense of the most productive and useful individuals.
However, the most educated tend to vote Democratic, but this doesn’t mean they are welfare liberals looking for a handout. They could be pro-business neoliberals.
In regard to ethics, given the excessive coverage of major frauds like Enron and Worldcom, it’s little surprise people are brainwashed to believe capitalism is inherently corrupt. The problem is not capitalism, it’s the liberal media for blowing these frauds out of proportion and failing to put the issue in perspective. Many would be surprised to learn that there have only been a dozen or so major accounting frauds on Wall St. in the past 30 years out of thousands of companies.
The left says that smart people lack common sense or that their policies are leading the country off a cliff. Hmmm…last time I checked, America’s economy, currency, and stock market indexes are running circles around the rest of the world. With the notable exception of China, which the ‘tolerant’ left also hates, other countries have either deflation or high inflation, civil unrest, slow growth, stagnant or falling stock prices, and falling currencies. Smart people run America, and they’re doing a pretty good job. The best and the brightest saved the day with bailouts and QE, and six years later Europe is copying QE due to its success. While the doom and gloom media has a tendency to obsess over high-profile failures, the libs forget that people of average IQ are capable of making bad decisions, too, and at a rate higher than high-IQ people. In their war on IQ and success, the left wants China to fail, which is why they keep predicting its economy to be a crisis and a bubble, because China has been one of the biggest economic success stories of the past two decades thanks to free markets, a meritocracy and ‘soft eugenics’ through assortive mating. At the same time, the left roots for failures like Greece and Argentina, in the delusional world they inhabit where logic and mind are divorced.