A Challenge to the "Income" Genes Clan

I was going to do a longer critique of this study:

Genome-wide analysis identifies molecular systems and 149 genetic loci associated with income

However, I do a lot of these and it seems like I  go after each head of a hydra, only to be met with one more absurd than the last.  Instead I am going to say a couple of things and offer a challenge to the authors. This study claimed to have found 30 loci associated with income (29 novel). They then went digging around the UK BioBank, for which many of the authors in this study are all too familiar, and used MTAG for other dubious phenotypes, like "Educational Attainment", and "intelligence" to crank up another 120 associations. Imagine the assumptions of the authors regarding income, our economic system, the illusion of meritocracy, IQ, the primacy of income, and the fantasy that you can add up a bunch of genetic variants and determine the likelihood of a high or low income for a person.

A couple of points about the 30 loci noted above. First, there were only 2 previous loci correlated with this trait in the past. So one of the two was not significant. You might think, well, at least they replicated one loci. However, the previous 2 loci come from a smaller version of the same damn UK BioBank dataset. Thus, even though they were using some of the same data as their last study (yes, same authors, same database), one of the loci didn't reach significance with additional data. So what we really have are 30 "novel" loci, that have never been replicated. This, in my opinion, is what one might view as a "screening study." So, good, go and do a GWAS of an INDEPENDENT dataset that you haven't been turning upside down for the past 5 years and see if any of these same loci meet significance instead of trying every kind of gymnastic exercise to correlate these likely false positives into something meaningful.

In fact, I challenge the authors of this study to do a GWAS for "income" on an independent dataset other than the UK BioBank, which at this point is like playing poker when you can see what's in everyone else's hand, and see if you can even replicate a single one of these loci. I'll even handicap you and say you can use all white people again, but somewhere other than the UK. 

If you can't replicate any of these loci, then admit you are playing a shell game, pack up your shit and go find a real, honest job, instead of fueling the prejudices of Charles Murray and Quillette.