Originally posted by MrSiD:
However I'm not that sure about the genom side of the problem. A persons social class does not equal to his intellect.. A rich family boy can have a much lower iq compared to the child of a poor family.
MrSid,
For the purposes of this particular discussion it does not matter whether the intelligence is inherited or developed - the children of
underprivileged parents will end up
on average with much lower IQ then the children of affluent partens. That will make much harder for them to move up of their socioeconomic group.
Since underprivileged/low IQ group procreates more rapidly then affluent/professional group, the average IQ of the population tends to decline.
As for genetics and IQ, I suggest for anybody interested to read
"The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life" by Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray.
As an engineer I find it extremely convincing. It explains many things about american society.
A rich family boy can have a much lower iq compared to the child of a poor family. Not only he can, the statistics can easily and accurately predict how many of such boys
must appear per a thousand born. As most of natural processes the human IQ and it's relation to other factors is accurately described by a normal (Gaussian) statistical distribution. While a single example means nothing in statistics, a representative sample can be predicted very accurately.
So are you saying that smart people should screw more stupid people in an attempt to breed them out of their stupidity? No, I am saying that the welfare program as it stands right now is a breeding program for underprivileged people which is not only bad for society, but an offence to most religions, let alone common sence.
Society may be interested in subcidising a disadvantaged person to help him/her improve his/her station in life and then having children in better conditions. What would be a point in subcidising them having children while still on welfare to the detriment of their carreer of educatiion. Of course I have no right to tell anyone how many children and when they should have. At the same time I should have no obligation to pay for that. If I had spare money I would rather have an extra child of my own.
We should stop subsidising procreation and leave it to an individual and God.
I also say that it is a waste of money to subcidise the school programs for the lagging students - there is a limit how much you can teach them. Instead a proper (fool-proof) working conditions should be created so that such persons could be productive and self-sufficient members of society with amount of knowlege they can absorb.
The money should be directed towards programs selecting and giving extra tutelage to a few capable students because they are the ones upon which the future prosperity of the society depends - scientists, administrators and politicians.
The Nazi's tried it and we all know what came out of that.. They did not have a scientific foundation, so their conclusions were not entirely correct. I am sure that given time they would have measured everything correctly and accurately determined where racial/ethnic group stands on the scale of
average cognitive ability.
My main disagreement with nazis is what to do about that.
I say - we do nothing, treat each person regardless of his origin and let nature take it's course.
Nazi say that "inferior" races must be sugbjugated and eradicated to free living space for "superior" races.
Liberals say that the science should be ignored and somehow despite the fact that races and ethnicities, differ in any measurable factor, their intelligence is somehow equal (I am talking about averages). So any inequality of outcomes is a result of some kind of oppression and must be fixed by spending money and finding and punishing the guilty.
Having equal intelligence would be great but there is a diferrence between engaging in wishfull thinking and acting as if it were real fact.
miko
[This message has been edited by miko2d (edited 02-28-2001).]