May 1, 2007

Wealth not correlated with IQ

In the WSJ$, Robert Frank writes about a study showing that wealth is not correlated with IQ.

This weakens the moral case for redistributing money from the rich to the poor. Much of a person's IQ is determined by genes, so if IQ had a huge influence on wealth then a person's wealth would be hugely determined by their genes. But perhaps this new study indicates that non-inherited factors, like effort and willingness to take risk, determine wealth and so perhaps the current distribution of wealth is somewhat "fair."