This week's TV Guide (Dec. 19-25)says that the street smarts people had an average income that was three times the book smarts peeps. A couple of observations (though I don't know any of these people or know about the first episode).
I think book smart people tend to work for corporations. I think to make large sums of money, they would have to become a high level executive or CEO, which is extremely difficult, particularly at a young age. On the other hand, the street smart are likely to be entrepeneurs and business owners, and they do better financially since their income is tied to their efforts directly and less on corporate politics.
Second, it looks like the teams will be co-ed from the start, so I don't see the potential for the destructive cat-fighting that occurred on the Apex team for either of these teams. Hopefully that results in more balanced team performances for A3.
You are right in that we don't know these peeps yet, so most of this stuff is generalizations.You are right about companies not allowing people to make as much as people that are in a business of their own. However, I have found that people that have business degrees (marketing, economics and things like that) and experience can easily make $75,000 to 100,000 here in Knoxville, Tennessee(a small city with a low cost of living).
I have a friend that lives in Atlanta with 8 years of marketing experience and he is a project manager making over $150,000. If he were on the show then that would mean the street smarts peeps are pushing $450,000! That's a lot of freaking money!