It is better to be born Intelligent than to be born wealthy

Scrolling through YouTube in search of new music, I realized that there are thousands of songs pertaining to love, depression, wealth, and the like. However, no (popular) song deals with “Intelligence”.Think of it. Have you ever heard a song that goes “Intelligence can come at birth-time, and last for,a lifetime…”? Probably not (though if you have, one must marvel at your ability to find such esoteric music).But why is this the case? Isn’t intelligence far more relevant than wealth, especially in the modern world? Bill Gates did say something to that effect.

Taking this into account, one begins to wonder as to whether it is better to be born wealthy than to be born intelligent. After all, it is the rich people who are named in songs, and who doesn’t want to be immortalized in music? Now, this is where the catch lies. There’s no point in being born rich with absolutely no intelligence. Why? It’s pretty simple. As the proverb goes, anybody can earn money; it takes a wise person to keep it. A rich person with no brains is a Bassanio in the making. On the other hand, a person born of poverty may earn enough to be classified as “wealthy”, if they apply their brain-power to this purpose. Then again, there’s also the argument that such people are possessors of “Intellectual Wealth” which is far greater than “Materialistic Wealth”, but that is essentially the same argument put forward in alternative wording.

That said, it cannot be denied that being born rich has its benefits. First of all, rich kids get to go to posh, “refined” schools where the quality of education is often very high (once again, this is of no avail if the kid has absolutely no intelligence). Second, it’s easier to expand a capitalistic empire than it is to create one; so the intelligent one who is born wealthy has a clear advantage here. Last, and the most important point- those who are born rich get to play video games, as and when they wish. What, that isn’t a valid point? Okay, then there are only two significant conditional advantages. Not enough to tilt the balance in favour of being born rich, to be honest.

Enough of theory, a real-life example is in order. Case Study: Steve Jobs. Born poor, he went to university, dropped out due to financial troubles, started marketing a computer that his friend had made, and within a year had founded Apple Incorporated, which went on to become the most influential tech company in the history of technology, and recently declared a profit of $18 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014. He died before the $18 billion came, though. How very inconsiderate of the cancer that killed him.

Jobs is just one in thousands of such people. Okay, not everyone makes $18 billion in three months, but what they do earn is well above average. Admitted, there are a few who die poor (for example, Nikolai Tesla) but that does not make them and their intelligence worthless. Tesla’s inventions and ideas help power a vast majority of the electronic gadgets that are probably all around you right now. That said, I really don’t expect to hear his name in a song on YouTube.