The Disadvantages of Being Stupid

Excellent Article in the Atlantic

I think one major disadvantage of being stupid is in getting financial services. If you aren't smart, you'll get ripped off. Particularly pre-financial crisis, credit card companies, auto lenders, banks, etc. will come with a bunch of tricks that rip people off. These companies are much smarter than the average Joe. And then as a society, we often say the solution is financial education rather than treating people fairly.

Sometimes I got to talking to my passengers, and they'd soon ask, "what are you doing driving a taxi?" They thought someone with a very expensive college degree ought to be doing something more remunerative.

Intelligence is not genetic, it is cultivated. I grew up upper-middle-class, and my mother made an effort to feed us well.

John Taylor Gatto says [1][2] that public schools are specifically designed to dumb down the vast majority of its conscripts, which makes sense to me.

[1] https://books.google.com/books?id=OYzvBFsob0oC&printsec=fron... [2] https://libcom.org/library/against-school-john-taylor-gatto