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 Friday December 16 2016, @12:41AM
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
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
TIL every society is a eugenics society
wait for it...
TIL I am a sucker