The Community on Friday

Al-Husayn on Interfaith Dialogue and Religious Tolerance by Dr Murtaza Akber Hameer

Modern capitalist societies often assume that financial success is the clearest evidence of intelligence, hard work and personal worth. The wealthy are frequently treated as society’s most capable people, while those with lower incomes may be viewed as less ambitious or less deserving. However, the Swedish study discussed in Ross Pomeroy’s article challenges this assumption. Using cognitive assessment and income data from approximately 59,000 Swedish men, researchers found that intelligence was strongly associated with higher earnings up to a certain point. Beyond roughly €60,000 a year, cognitive ability levelled off, and the top one percent of earners scored slightly lower than those immediately beneath them.