Gee, Thanks! China-Based Outsourcer Lowers Minimum IQ Requirement for Americans

By Rob Sanchez on July 22, 2010

A China-based outsourcing company called Bleum requiresthat all job applicants for computer science positionshave a minimum IQ of 140. Bleum recently announced that it will hire Americans who are willing to move to China—but, according to Bleum, it couldn`t find enough Americans that met its minimum requirements for intelligence. Bleum decided to lower its minimum IQ to 125 to compensate for the weak talent pool in the UnitedStates:

"An IQ test is the first screen for any US or Chineseapplicant.

“The lower IQ threshold for new US graduates reflectsthe fact that the pool of US talent available to thecompany is smaller than the pool of Chinese talent,Bleum said."

Chinese outsourcer seeks U.S. workers with IQ of 125 andup, by Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld, July 7, 2010

So the Chinese are going to give Americans a break on IQbecause of the smaller talent pool in the U.S. At leastthey understand our standards of Political Correctnesswell enough to know that it would be politically incorrect to say that Americans, on average, are not as smart as the Chinese.

Bleum claims that it normally only hires geniuses thatwould represent the 99.6 percentile of the American population. (Chinese IQ is supposed to be higher than American on average, but the tails of their IQ Bell Curve may be smaller—i.e. fewer geniuses. I haven`t been able to find good numbers on how it nets out.) [VDARE.com note: Check out Richard Lynn`s Global Bell Curve, andIQ And The Wealth Of Nations for actual numbers.]

To put it another way, only 0.4% of the population wouldhave the opportunity to apply for a job at this company — the “crème de la crème"! Or maybe we should say the"soya of the soy milks".

In case you have never heard of Bleum, click this link to find out more: About Bleum. (Note: it now says it accepts people with IQs above 130!)

I`m not an expert on IQ like Steve Sailer. But thanks his ample reporting on VDARE.COM, I am probably in the99th percentile of the population when it comes tounderstanding what IQ tests mean! 

So let me share a few thoughts on the issue.

The Chinese are obviously using the IQ scale developedby Lewis Terman in 1916 that rates these IQs as follows:

• Over 140 – Genius or near genius
• 120 – 140 – Very superior intelligence

In order to get a grip on what kind of people numbers weare talking about, China has a population ofapproximately 1.3 billion. Therefore, the 99.6 percentile would be about 5 million people (assuming a distribution similar to whites—it could be higher).

To put this in perspective: according to the BLS the United States has about 1.3 million workers in computer software engineering and programming — which means the Chinese could in theory replace the entire U.S. computer profession almost four times over if IQ was used to screen job applicants.

Fortunately for the U.S., not all Chinese geniuses arecomputer science graduates — some of them are probablystill using water buffalos to farm rice. But this threat to the U.S. is very real, especially considering that India probably has an even larger population.

IQ is a crude way to predict performance in computerscience, or most other professions, because there aremany factors that go into a successful career besidescognitive abilities. On the other hand, the U.S. militaryhas proven that IQ has a direct correlation with performance.

Without question, there must be a minimum IQ thatcomputer programmers need in order to function in amodern workplace environment. But judging by the widerange of IQs for CS professionals (see this table: Modern IQ ranges for various occupations, (Based on a University of Wisconsin study[PDF])programmers have a wide variability of IQ scores that range from about 100-125.

I have personally known computer programmers that would probably test fairly low on many IQ tests, because many of their skills such as reading, writing or math aresubstandard. But they were whiz kids once they arebehind the keyboard — hence the term "geek" (Contrary to popular opinion computer programming usually requires very little math). As Steve Sailer explained, alchemists can`t change lead into gold, but lead is useful anyway.

Could it be that people can be too smart for computer jobs? I don`t have enough evidence to judge that scientifically, but the case of Bleum suggests an answer of “yes” to that question—because although it only hires above 140 IQ, it isn`t exactly the envy of the world. It has used the 140 IQ screen for at least five years, so there`s been time to prove this approach. It hasn`t translated into greatness yet. I`ll bet most readers have neverheard of Bleum.

Of course, Bleum`s problem could be that the onlygeniuses in the company are the programmers—not themarketers!

Basing employment on IQ isn`t very fashionable in theUnited States. It tends to be considered inherently racistbecause the large average IQ between different races [America and the Left Half of the Bell Curve] and is arguably illegal after the disastrous Griggs vs. Duke Power decision.

Bleum doesn`t disclose how it chose an IQ minimum of 125 for Americans. But I suppose that, hypothetically, itcould be motivated by a preference for racial groups like whites or Asians who consistently score higher in IQ tests. Or it might be that IQ tests are a valuable tool that the Chinese get to use and we don`t because there are no easily-offended minorities in China—further proof that diversity is not strength.

There are many questions that could be raised by Bleum`s IQ tests. So let me tackle an obvious one: Why would a genius work for Bleum?

According to Dr. Norm Matloff, the 90th percentile of wages earned by American workers in the computer field is about $109,170. [On the Need for Reform of the H-1B Nonimmigrant Work Visa in Computer-Related Occupations, University Of Michigan Journal Of Law Reform. Fall 2003]Coincidentally, the 90th percentile mentioned by Matloff correlates roughly to the 125 IQ that Bleum set for American workers. The 90th percentile isn`t genius level, so we would expect people with higher IQs to make even more.

Considering that geniuses should easily be able to make six figure salaries in the U.S, which job would a genius be likely to choose — a job in the U.S. or one in China working for Bleum?

In my opinion the answer is obvious to anyone who readsthis quote from Eric Rongley, the American-born founder and CEO of Bleum:

"In fact, according to Bleum`s Mr. Rongley, getting thebest in China won`t be as economical as people expect it to be. `Most companies hire the cheapest resource. I hire the best resource. If you want a company ofsuperstars, you can`t pay them $3 (per hour) for aproject manager or 50 cents for an engineer. Yes,sometimes they manage to get code developed for crazy low prices. They have interns working on theirprojects.` [SPECIAL REPORT: Outsourcing to China, by Jacqueline Zhang, Sourcingmag.com, August 2, 2005]

Fifty cents an hour?

And, while Bleum may pay more, it doesn`t seem veryeager to advertise its salaries either. There are lots of job openings listed on the career page at Bleum, but salaries are conspicuously missing.

One final note: According to Computerworld and numerous other webzine articles there were five Americans who got jobs at Bleum. Almost all mention of the five American geniuses stopped about July 8th.

Since then I have spent hours searching the internet tofind out find out who the lucky Americans are that aremoving to Shanghai for the honor or working at Bleum.

It would seem to reason that there would be at least alittle fanfare about their identities. But so far I haven`t found a single picture or any other clue as to who they are.

Why is there such great silence about the lucky winners?

Rob Sanchez (email him) is a Senior Writing Fellow forCalifornians for Population Stabilization and author of the"Job Destruction Newsletter" (sign up for it here) atwww.JobDestruction.com. To make a tax-deductible donation to Rob Sanchez, click here.