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from the better-than-growing-up-to-be-a-sink dept.
Scientists at Kings College London performed a longitudinal study to test the 'Pareto principle' and found that adults who were greater users of public services were most likely to have had a low score on the intelligence and impulsivity test administered at age three.
"About 20 per cent of population is using the lion's share of a wide array of public services," said Prof Terrie Moffitt, of King's College and Duke University in North Carolina. "The same people use most of the NHS, the criminal courts, insurance claims, for disabling injury, pharmaceutical prescriptions and special welfare benefits.
"If we stopped there it might be fair to think these are lazy bums who are freeloading off the taxpayer and exploiting the public purse.
"But we also went further back into their childhood and found that 20 per cent begin their lives with mild problems with brain function and brain health when they were very small children.
"Looking at health examinations really changed the whole picture. It gives you a feeling of compassion for these people as opposed to a feeling of blame.
"Being able to predict which children will struggle is an opportunity to intervene in their lives very early to attempt to change their trajectories, for everyone's benefit and could bring big returns on investment for government."
Full Paper: Childhood forecasting of a small segment of the population with large economic burden DOI: 10.1038/s41562-016-0005
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @08:25PM
>Age 3 is extremely early to be making decisions about who is and isn't going to succeed.
In case of genetic disease, *conception* is when you can make such decisions with very high certainty. What makes you sure the root cause here is not some mild genetic defect?
And even barring that - the brain's ability to rewire itself degrades with age. It might just happen that by that age, certain kinds of defective wiring, acquired in whatever way, become unfixable - either without a dedicated effort, or at all. Nature has no justice and no compassion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:25PM
The 1930's called. They want their eugenics meme back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @07:44AM
If by your doctrine they must be wrong in every thing, then why don't you stop doing either, or both?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and Wernher von Braun is still the father of USA space program. Science is science, and nature forgot to make an exception for your ideology.