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: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @09:30PM
Every corporation that leaves the US due to taxes isn't proof? Do you know how many companies have their corporate headquarters in Ireland?
THEY ALREADY LEFT.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/05/ireland-attracts-soaring-level-of-us-investment [theguardian.com]
And you are mistaken about entitlements.
http://www.mlive.com/opinion/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2012/09/are_social_security_and_medica.html [mlive.com]
(Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday December 15 2016, @09:40PM
And yet they still do business in the U.S.
It's almost as if you're deliberately missing the point. Of they want to do business in the U.S., they should be taxed. If they don't want to be taxed here, they should exit the market. There's plenty of smaller businesses ready to take their place.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 16 2016, @04:48PM
That is the corruption that people are bitching about. In effect, Ireland tells corporations, "If you want to cheat on your taxes legally, pay us a pittance, and we'll give you a semi-legal loophole to jump through."
The world is beginning to close some of those loopholes. The EU, and the US are leading that little parade. If you do $100 billion in business in $country, then you should pay taxes on that $100 billion to $country.