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It's most likely a very shallow vote to cast in this debate, but being born wealthy would enable an individual to be more successful than if one were born intelligent. Simply put, if you're wealthy, you don't need to be intelligent. And if you're wealthy enough, then people will tell you that you are intelligent whether you truly are or not. And it's a terrible way to look at it, but that doesn't change the reality of the matter.

It also helps that wealth is more tangible and concrete than intelligence. There are many different kinds of intelligence that need to be qualified. There is logical intelligence, the kind that lends itself to more mechanical endeavors. There is musical intelligence, artistic intelligence, literary intelligence, social intelligence, and so on. And any one kind of intelligence from the list above is not guaranteed to make an individual successful. In fact, even if every kind of intelligence mentioned above is factored in under the umbrella definition of the term, one is still not as likely to be successful as one would be if one were rich.

There are so many intelligent people all throughout history who unfortunately did not amount to much in their lifetime. Their brilliance went ignored and unheard, and the luckier ones attained reverence and fame and a place in history after their work was exhumed posthumously.

Those that are intelligent currently and revered for such a quality have additional problems that others do not have to grapple with. When one's salient characteristic is intelligence, one's salient purpose becomes the practicality or applicability of aforementioned intelligence. This leads to all sorts of ethical dilemmas that simply do not present themselves otherwise. One's life becomes a slave of the gift of intelligence, something akin to a hamster running in a wheel. Since there is no limit to intelligence (there is no limit to wealth, either, but the fact remains that it is so much easier to see and comprehend the wealth one does have, whereas that is not true for intelligence) an intelligent person will likely spend his or her life seeking more knowledge and building up from there. And if Socrates is to believed, and that true intelligence means knowing you know nothing, then that little hamster in his wheel must run even faster to get nowhere.

With wealth, however, the case is quite different. Wealth can be measured in terms of real estate, possessions, a little number at the bottom of a column in a ledger maintained by a high-cost accountant. It is easy to want to always pursue more wealth, of course, but it is also easy to see just how much wealth one has currently, which is not applicable to being intelligent.

And in general, if the goal of intelligence is to earn a place in history, the sad fact remains that wealth can lead to the same result with a sliver of the effort and hard work.

Learn more about this author, Huma Rashid.
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