Re: Income vs. IQ

I William Wiser (wwiser@best.com)
Thu, 19 Jun 1997 16:32:46 -0700


At 10:08 AM 6/19/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Holding constant the IQ variance but extending lifespan, would income
>variance at the end increase? That is, the longer time you have to
>work and invest in learning things, the more benefit you can get out
>of your higher IQ? Or would the same income variance spread out over
>a longer time scale?

For some groups there is a correlation between income and IQ over a
number of decades. If we postulate that there is some factor that
causes both higher IQ and higher income it seems likely that the
income results will compound over time.

>Varing the IQ variance for a fixed lifespan, is there some maximum IQ
>beyond which IQ doesn't help income within the lifespan, so that
>longer lifespans are required to take advantage of it?

I don't think IQ differences above a certain level are meaningful but
let's assume they are or deal with IQ's below that level. Given a
large number of income generating puzzles some percentage of them
will benefit from a higher IQ, the more difficult one's coming up
less frequently. Again I think the compound interest analogy is good
with very high IQs adding small percentages which take a long time to
become significant.

>Or am I tring to read too much into a few noisy data points?

There is a lot of IQ and income data out there so I suspect you could
develop a number of testable hypotheses. It is interesting but
I can't think how the results would be useful. In any case I doubt
you will get a chance to reap the full benefits of your own prodigious
IQ before intelligence increasing technology becomes widely available.

--
I. William Wiser  <wwiser@best.com>  Longevity Consultant