There’s a stereotype that IQ tests just measure book smarts and yet intelligence itself evolved because of it’s practical real World survival value. Thus I’m always fascinated when a bookish high IQ nerd decides to compete in a decidedly non-nerdy field like politics. Will their lack of charisma make them look like a dork, or will their intelligence allow them to adapt to even the most unlikely of situations.
Ramaswamy has a lot going against him. He is dark skinned, foreign named and Hindu in a party that is Evangelical Christian and anti-immigration. He’ll never be able to compete with Trump when it comes to charisma and ability to connect with working class whites, however by becoming Trump’s most vocal and articulate supporter and vowing to pardon Trump of everything if he ever becomes President, he is gradually emerging as the most popular non-Trump candidate and inoculating himself from attacks from Trump himself.
He also took the disadvantage of being a perceived foreigner in a nativist movement and cleverly turned it to his advantage by putting a brown face on Trump’s fan base thus making them feel less racist.
By skillfully and shamelessly sucking up to Trump and calling him the greatest President of the century, he was able to get the crowd screaming so hysterically on his side that anti-Trump Chris Christie was nearly booed off the stage.
But Governor Nikki Haley was having none of it. Before this arrogant young Brahman came along, she was the top Indian American in the GOP.
Just as Ramaswarmy had turned the crowd against Chris Christie for being anti-Trump, Haley turned the crowd against Ramaswarmy for being insufficiently pro-Israel, scolding him for thinking Israel needs America; arguing it’s America that needs Israel! The Israel loving crowd went wild.
So what is his IQ?
In 2016 Forbes ranked Ramaswarmy as one of the 40 richest U.S. entrepreneurs under 40. Virtually everyone on the list was born between 1977 and 1993 and all but two were men. Assuming there are 32 million American men born in those years, Ramaswarmy’s 24th place ranking puts his self-made wealth around the one in 1.3 million level for American men in his age range. If there were a perfect correlation between IQ and life-time earnings, this would equate to an IQ 72 points above the U.S. mean, but because the correlation between IQ and permanent income in men is 0.48, his expected IQ is 72(0.48) = 35 points above the U.S. mean or 135 (U.S. norms).
However even this is likely an underestimate because Ramaswarmy is much more educated than the average young gazillionaire. While about 15% of the young and self-made super rich attended Harvard, Ramaswarmy not only graduated, but did so in STEM, and then on top of that, got a JD from Yale Law giving him the most impressive credentials of anyone on the 40 person list (though one other guy went to Caltech).
If there were a perfect correlation between IQ and education, we’d expect the most educated person among the 40 under 40 to be 30 IQ points above the group mean, but since the correlation between IQ and education among same age peers is 0.7, and slips to 0.4 when we look at people of similar income levels, his expected IQ would be 30(0.4) = 12 points above the mean of a group which is already 35 points above the U.S. mean.
In other words the expected IQ of a U.S. under-40 near-billionaire with two Ivy League degrees is 147 (U.S. norms) or 146 (white norms) and until we get some actual psychometric data, this is a good guess for Ramaswarmy.
This is one in a 1000 level intellect.