Based on 550,492 individuals in 123 countries.

The Story.

The Working Data. (Click “National”).

A few national examples (rounded):

Brazil = 85

Canada = 100

China = 106

Germany = 100

Kenya = 72

Mexico = 88

UK = 99

US = 98.

I’m a little surprised the USA came in as high as it did. I would not be surprised if that number (and the global average) slips a little with each coming decade and/or generation. Are these scores, like age, just numbers?

A few thoughts:

1. This may explain the popularity of television.
2. 98 will have trouble returning to the moon. 86 will not go the first time. 72 might have trouble finding the thing with a telescope.
3. Last week, in my rant against robots, I, with qualification, accepted CNBC’s average  “normal” score of 100. That was just wrong; 100 was the normed average from about a century ago for white Northern European populations. Those populations seem to be holding the average but the world at large is almost a whole standard deviation off (under).
4. To those who cry “racist,” “white privilege,” “Eurocentric,” “cultural insensitivity,” or such rubbish, just reply: “China.”
5. The study author(s) should probably forget even trying to discuss any of this at an American university.
6. If US trends continue, we might want to forget the idea of the American university.

Becker/Lynn/Unz.

Was Idiocracy really just a comedy or could it have been a documentary?