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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday December 15 2016, @01:08PM   Printer-friendly
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


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @07:09PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @07:09PM (#441723)

    What? Evolution is the result of variation and selection. There is variation in productivity, and Welfare is selecting those with poor productivity by subsidizing their reproduction.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:46PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:46PM (#441851)

    u 2 dum 4 db8

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @12:41AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @12:41AM (#441878)

    Nobody is willing to let them just starve in the streets. They won't stop reproducing, either. Nobody is willing to tell them they cannot reproduce. Even if we were to assume some kind of social eugenics, nobody is willing to take their children from them as infants so they can be raised outside of the cycle of poverty.

    There is no selection happening here.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @04:38AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @04:38AM (#441939)

      Those choices make it selection, pal.

      There are plenty of ways to reward people for choosing not to reproduce.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @07:09AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 16 2016, @07:09AM (#441981)

        TIL every society is a eugenics society

        wait for it...

        TIL I am a sucker

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 16 2016, @05:51AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 16 2016, @05:51AM (#441966) Journal
    Perhaps you should read what I wrote. Then comment. Note the use of the term "systematic".