re: I am convinced that people who work in DC are less intelligent than the avg college grad

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Mike Rowe knows Bass Tiger? That's cool.

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Sorry, I digressed.
I don't know if Mike knows Bass Tiger.
Heck, you may be the real Mike Rowe.
I was simply commenting that I agree with Bass Tiger that many successful people did not need college and that so many young people today are wasting their future on getting an overpriced college degree.

But yes, I have very close ties to DC and it is a bureaucratic nightmare that needs to be addressed.
This country was not founded to be a city-state.

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But more importantly, even if one doesn't need it to he successful, that doesn't mean it would be a waste of time if it provides something they value.

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Any education about anything is good. Means you learned something you didn't know. However, don't bitch about the lack of the reward of that education is you're the one who picked that path to go down knowing that the payoff isn't what you want.

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But those people probably aren't the ones who would have been successful regardless.

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Definitely agree but they are the ones who will be the first to holler inequality also.

Would you say they are more or less intelligent than someone who believes a daily beast article...you know...like you?

Your comment is true.

Look at the demographics of the Federal employee base. That should tell you the IQ and mentality of the average Federal government worker.

No matter how competent or efficient an elected or appointed official heading a department might be. They can be no better then the employee base underneath them.

You can't put Secretariat as the lead of a pack of mules and expect to have a team of race horses.

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If you've ever worked with or around beltwayers for any length of time, you will learn two things paramount to your getting ahead. 

1) Never challenge anyone above you 
2) Do not deviate from the requested task 

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Boy, did I get an education in this particular modus operandi when I took a job with the RTC. I had only worked for one other company before that, an energy/utility company, where they had encouraged ideas and creativity.

But this government job was totally different. The first or second week I was there, I had an idea for a better way to do something. I went to the boss & shared my idea. When I was thru, he just looked at me and said, "Do it exactly the way you were taught."

I was there for 8 months, and that mindset never changed. Funny how unmotivated people become when the profit motive is removed from the equation.

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Well being able to acquire and store factual information and then "regurgitate" it is one of the highest loading abilities on G. So it is a fundamental part of intelligence. And while education level cannot be used to gauge an individual's intelligence, there is a clear relationship with intelligence and education level at the group and population level.

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I agree, a good memory is typically a component of above average intelligence. Spewing facts and trivia are cool when conversing and playing board games but not much help in critical thinking and problem solving. I have a brother who can out trivial pursuit anyone but I did not call him to help me design and build my new deck.