Traits and competitive performance

Abstract

By 370 BC, Athens was the greatest power in the eastern Mediterranean. Fortunes were made and lavish displays of wealth proliferated. But, continues Durant (1939) “In the midst of this wealth poverty increased, for the same variety and freedom of exchange that enabled the clever to make money allowed the simple to lose it faster than before. Under the new mercantile economy the poor were relatively poorer than in the days of their serfdom on the land.” Nearly two millennia before Durant, Jesus reached the same conclusion.“The poor,” he said, “will always be with us.”

The poor schemed to dispoil the rich by legislation or revolution, the rich organised themselves for protection against the poor. W. Durant (1939, p. 465)

Thou shalt save live nothing that breatheth God (Deut 20:16)

Although it is nor easy to measure potential for achievement, which is what tests do, we need some measure, however imperfect, or else we cannot use achievement as a criterion for selection. D’Souza (1995, p. 317)