Today, the big tech clusters dominate U.S. patenting activity.

seems implied that "number of patents" is a proxy for "innovation" rather than "rent seeking behavior"

~~Inventors~~ patent-holders are more likely to be male, come from well-off families, have parents who ~~are inventors~~ hold patents, ~~are of relatively high cognitive ability (whether measured by standardized test scores or IQ tests)~~ are good at these kinds of tests because they come from environments that value being good at these kinds of tests and so they receive extra early childhood training in taking these kinds of tests from their well-off families, and have high education levels.

Given these ~~demographics~~ self-reinforcing mechanisms of socioeconomic stratification, it seems quite likely that the rise of standardized testing and meritocratically selective univer­sities probably played a key role in the ability of firms to identify the uppermost tier ~~of innovative talent~~ of multigenerational failchildren.

i'm trying to fix the framing here but there's a lot to do