A great number of individual events are random, many more than you might think. Also, a large number of those same random events are predictable. For example, the pregnancy, birth, death, immigration, and exodus rates are so well-known the Census Bureau has built a very accurate model that tracks them all. It is so accurate that the only urgent need for a 10-year census count is to re-allocate legislative seats. Still, you and I do not know who is going to get pregnant today, or who is going to die today, not from minute to minute, nor day by day. There’s a bad joke in there, so let’s move on.

The same can be said for who will become a CEO, and receive an income that is 495 times larger than yours. Is it the best and the brightest? Not on your life. There are about 50,000 others who are just as qualified or better qualified to be a CEO as every one in the same group who now occupies that position.

In my opinion, Bill Gates is dumber than dirt. He can barely engage in a coherent conversation. He did not rise up from the multitudes because of his superior intellect. He was merely a co-owner of the MS/Dos software that fell into his lap, and he reaped the billions of dollars in royalties that flowed in from that chance occurrence.

What about Jeff Bezos? He’s another dufus who was in the right place at the right time. A very large number of others were the product of the man-made system known as the good-old-boy network of the sons and daughters of the wealthy. You have known many of the truly bright ones: Your high school teacher, or a neighbor who could disassemble and build a car with just a crescent wrench. Real brainiacs do not do well as random recipients. Nicola Tesla is one example. His IQ was off-the-charts at the high end. But his bank account was probably lower than yours. A random chance here, another one there, and the course of history changes again and again. But someone has got to be standing in the right place at the right time, while others are not.

Are most of the events and outcomes in life random? Yes. Do others like to take credit for their good luck? Yes. Still, some of us will go on believing that the game of life is based on merit. It isn’t. On an individual basis, it is rigged. But there is always someone standing in the sunshine when a storm hits, while many, many others are getting soaked.

You read it here, finally, and written by someone who is soaked up to his eyeballs from too many rainy days.