[arthurus]

Rich people tend to be, among those who made themselves rich at least, smarter than the average. That's how they got rich. Once rich they educate their children who, coincidentally, share their genes and start out on average smarter than others, in better schools. The children tend to marry others who come from successful families. What is so mysterious? Maybe it is all a conspiracy and rich children should be required to marry low IQ mates or to be homosexual so as not to pass on the genes for intelligence.

In a stratified society in which entry into the market is tightly controlled this all tends to concentrate the brains and, of course, the power at the top and to keep the lower classes stupid. In a totally free market society the circulation keeps the intelligence much more evenly distributed as the rich progeny who have not the entrepreneurial spirit lose the wealth of their parents and sparks among the less affluent flash to the top.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

I think you’re speaking more to “success” than to measurable “IQ.”

A lot of successful people’s children marry other successful people’s children and end up with a mixed bag of smarts and not so smarts.