The dirty little secret of the “Elites”: while the guy who made the fortune which put them into the upper class may have been brilliant and driven, his offspring tend to be unexceptional. By the second or third generation, very unexceptional.
The deepest fear of the upper class, is knowing that the middle class, every year, produces a number of kids who are far more brilliant than the average member of the “Elites”, and would like to out-compete them for their status.
And now you understand why the Elites have been busy for decades in the task of crippling public school education.
brilliant ... thank you ...
My observation from extremely successful businesses founded by a brilliant entrepreneur who passes them on to his children is this: the first generation he passes it to is a crap shoot, probably 50/50 that he'll either do reasonably well (but less so than the parent) or wreck the business. By the second generation it tips more to 25% likely do do well and 75% likely to destroy the business. Children of privilege do not want to get their hands dirty doing work. Those who watched their parent build a business are not so far from it that they feel it's beneath them. But if they manage to make the business even more succesful their own children have no experience with anything other than wealth. Working is for the little people, don't you know.
“The dirty little secret of the “Elites”: while the guy who made the fortune which put them into the upper class may have been brilliant and driven, his offspring tend to be unexceptional. By the second or third generation, very unexceptional.”
Actually, there’s an entire field of study on this: Reversion to the Mean - Statistics.
Unless you are actually breeding for performance, statistics is a cruel master.