The Bell Curve is a controversial beast of a book that tickled my brain by examining a number of taboo subjects. Since collective intelligence is superior to mine, I’ll quote Wikipedia: “Its central argument is that intelligence is substantially influenced by both inherited and environmental factors and is a better predictor of many personal dynamics, including financial income, job performance, chance of unwanted pregnancy, and involvement in crime than are an individual’s parental socioeconomic status, or education level.”
The book also draws a number of insights into the class structure in America – the land of opportunity is no longer a meritocracy. A large percentage of the population doesn’t stand a chance. If trends don’t reverse, we are on a path to a welfare state with an enormous divide between the wealthy and poor (similar to many Latin American countries today).
A few bullet points for you to ponder:
- Our country has become extremely efficient at identifying intelligence and grouping the similarly minded together (without trying to). A hundred years ago there was a wide range of smarts on the assembly lines of factories. Today there is an extremely high correlation between IQ and income, largely due to our university system’s ability to identify the brightest and deliver credentials. This results in a self-perpetuating clumping of similarly intelligent individuals – every generation it will become more pronounced.
- 20% of children in the United States are born to single mothers of below average intelligence. We know dual parent homes are better at raising kids and that brains are inherited (to some extent). Those kids head to the plate with two strikes already.
- Small shifts in the average IQ of the population have shockingly large effects on things like crime, unwanted pregnancy, divorce, unemployment, and welfare. As in a 2% shift of the bell curve in IQ yields a 15% difference in some of the aforementioned categories (causation not guaranteed, but with those kinds of numbers it must at least contribute). This is particularly important as it is estimated the average IQ is currently dropping by a point every generation.
- Education spending is heavily weighted towards the underprivileged (no child left behind), rather than gifted – 50 years ago this was not the case. If the goal of education is to help each child reach his or her full potential, this unbalanced allocation of resources is not ideal.
- It is a big no no to look at the average intelligence of individual races in America. Here are the numbers they quoted: African Americans 85, Latino 89, White 103, Asian 106, and Jews 113 (if you are a Jew does that mean you aren’t counted in the other categories?). Considering the exodus of the best and brightest from inner cities, the average IQ of those left behind is shockingly low.
Pretty interesting stuff, what do you think? Are these things you have thought about before?
Photo: xlibber
I’ll add it to my reading list – looks like a good counter-argument to Mindset
I haven’t read Mindset, but I don’t think The Bell Curve is an exact counter-argument. The Bell Curve takes a statistical approach, looking at the numbers and attempting to explain why they are that way. There are outliers in any statistic sample, but the book doesn’t really focus on them. For example, Mindset would likely argue that a kid born to a high school educated single mother can achieve greatness with the right psychology hacks. The Bell Curve says, odds are the kid will be below average intelligence, make less money, and is more likely to do jail time. But there are exceptions. Its more of a macro look rather than examining what any one person can accomplish.