"On average, they’re more intelligent and harder working than your average citizen." This makes me pretty uneasy. I know you said "on average" but I think that's a dodge. I think (I'm speculating here) that you mean “virtually all.” Putin is super rich. Trump is or was super rich at one time. (Yes, these are anecdotal, I know, but there are simply not a huge pool of people in this category.) MORE SIGNIFICANTLY, I think you may not be circulating with the extraodinary (and extraordinary amount of) talent that exists among emergency room nurses, adjunct professors, artisan cheese makers, and on and on. I wonder if it's worth re-considering this statement after investigating further. I fear the statement that the very rich are smarter is far more pernicious (and untrue) than you understand. And there are varieties of intelligence: (some of) the super rich have a very narrow band of highly strategic, highly focused intelligence that is excellent for, um, making lots of money. Like Sam Walton. Brilliant at the extractive strategies he came up with for Walmart. Not sure this is the type of intelligence that should be placed at the top of the pyramid of intelligence however. Sam (and most of these people) tend not to know the slightest thing about the more subtle and complex types of intelligence that exist. I was about to say that I can give you "hard working" but actually no. I think of the average emergency room nurse who goes home to 3 kids and NO. They are not harder working either.

I think it's also worth thinking about that, as far as I know, they are all, or almost exclusively, men. This isn't a coincidence, nor is it indicative that men are smarter and harder working. The more I keep typing this comment, the more agitated I get. I guess because I enjoyed your commentary so much in the past, but these careless comments betray a mentality that is childish, self-serving and just very disappointing.

P.S. Make sure you seek out non-sychophants yourself.