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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, @03:28PM
First, you follow the lead of a shaved orangutan with Owen Wilson's hair and you Brexit, then you rush to install encryption back doors into anything and everything, now you want to identify and brand children as dregs on the future economy. Geez Louise, I thought all the Dickens stuff I read was supposed to be fiction. Your society is really effed up. I guess it is true why the Sun never sets on the British Empire. . .
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @04:17PM
Um... the British Empire spanned the globe; literally, the sun never did set on the British Empire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @09:44PM
Um, no. You got it wrong: I know why the sun never sets on the British Empire: God wouldn't trust an Englishman in the dark.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @02:38AM
Past tense.