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Comment by byrneseyeview | Hacker News Reader

It looks like you've completely skipped over the possibility that intelligence and ambition are heritable -- whether genetically, or through parenting strategies -- and thus that academic ability and parental income correlate very well. I think this pattern of wishful thinking over actual data is part of why aid to Africa has been so counterproductive.

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Not to nitpick, but you may yourself have missed the fact that ambition does not always translate to a high income. This is especially true in a third world country where a good percentage of rich people get to be that way by simply stealing money from the government

Stealing via corruption takes ambition, too. Misdirected and unethical ambition, but ambition nonetheless.

I disagree. In a first-world country, an ambitious person might claw his way up to being regional director of cardboard issues for the EPA, and could earn low six figures. In a third-world country, that same ambitious person would get to that same level of authority, with the same proportionate salary -- and would be earning many times that amount in bribes. Outside of Western countries, there are very few things an ambitious person could achieve that do not in some way translate into money.

In many African countries, nutrition is probably the dominant means of transmitting IQ from parent to child.

Childhood malnutrition lowers IQ, and family income lowers childhood malnutrition. Hence, family income and IQ are highly correlated.

What country is this, anyway?

Check Ramanujan's story please... he could have made use of this kind of scholarship (not in Africa, but anyway).

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