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Comment by david-gpu | Hacker News Reader

Since IQ, education and wealth are all positively correlated, it's true that any group of smart highly-educated people is likely to come from privileged backgrounds, but that's not why they are being selected.

A lot of those immigrants you talk about will actually be middle class people that had to work twice as hard to get hired in a foreign country.

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I went to Cambridge University, UK and got a first in maths. I have friends who did to. Those of us who came from poor backgrounds had real difficulties getting a good job. We just weren't a "good fit". One of my friends with a 2.1 Cambridge maths degree was a waitress for 3 years after graduating.

Perhaps this is more of the case in the UK where class is more of a salient aspect of life than in the US?

Class is profoundly salient in the United States. Unless you've been on the outside it's very difficult to see, because the gradations are more subtle, but they run no less deep.

It's worth noting the distinction between social class and socioeconomic class/status. Socioeconomic status plays a larger role in United States relative to the UK. Social class refers to one's fixed sociocultural background and plays a far larger role in the UK compared to the US.

I've been outside the US. People care much less about where you've come from than in the places I've been (in Asia and Europe).

Of course class exists in the US, but if you're able to move up in a tax bracket people won't judge you for having come from a lower tax bracket.

People don't judge you openly or likely even consciously. But fitting in is fairly difficult.

Rubbing elbows with rich investors and CEOs from affluent backgrounds is definitely more difficult for someone from a lower class background.

I think the issue of the original poster was being a math graduate. Little to do with class or social economic background.

With maths, you can work as a professor or work in finance. Two domains with limited demands that are highly competitive.

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