Educational and Cognitive Capital Being smart is ‘cognitive capital’ in our complex, high tech, knowledge economy – in education, training and employment. Numerous studies show a clear link between IQ level and income or wealth. Here is some data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. For this sample the lowest decile (1/10) is people with I.Q below 84, and the highest decile above 116. In rapidly changing, unpredictable, and complex, learning intensive work environments IQ is increasingly viewed as valuable ‘cognitive
