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[–]roguecanine 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There's only so many spots on the top. Not every smart person can get in. Not everyone even wants to get in. It goes with sacrifices and even then success is no guarantee.

I don't really feel encaged. Today's world is the most free the world has ever been and I feel lucky to have been born in this time, as opposed to being born into peasantry in the Middle ages. That'd be the cage, not the pretty comfortable lifestyle of 21st century. There are always opportunities. No one is really forced to work jobs they don't like, live where they don't like. Unless they put themselves into a position in which they lose the choice, but that's on them.

If intelligence doesn't translate into some form of success then there is no proof that intelligence is even present.

Tell it to any artist/scientist whose contributions have only been acknowledged by society centuries later. And as if the proof is even needed? Why would anyone need to prove anything to others? Success is an external concept, a judgement of your person by other people. And that thing is pretty fickle. You can be revered by society, but not feel like you've accomplished anything. Or feel unhappy. imo only one's own opinion should matter, chasing approval of other people all your life is a fool's game.

Not to say that resources, money are not important of course. But it all comes down to compromise. Someone with an average salary working the job they like and having fulfilling hobbies can easily be happier than a rich investment banker working 150 hours a week, doing things they don't even like to big detriment to their health. Who'd be the real slave in that situation?