> Like a friend of mine without even a highschool degree became a tree surgeon and his business is making enough money now that rivals the rates of tech and finance bros in London

Intelligent or "smarts" is not measured by how successful you are or how much money you make.

Also great for your friend, but no one would hire him to do that if machines could do it for them

> When was this ever NOT the case? Without inherited generational wealth you're at the mercy of the capital/asset owning class to make a living.

What are you talking about? The capital class always relied on the professional class just as much. A wealthy person who owns a machine shop relies on machinists to make money. :/