Few people will be unaware of this issue, but Peterson is particularly good at bringing out just how important and intractable the problem is. Perhaps not terrifying because we live with it, but far bigger than most of the problems we are supposed to worry about.
A related problem is political honesty. Do we lay this problem on the political table and accept it as an intractable fact of life? Behind closed doors senior bureaucrats may be doing just that, but should the issue be brought into the open? If so then many members of the chattering classes will be outraged and deny that it exists or they will tout it as another government failing, implying as ever that it doesn't have to be a government failing if only enough money is spent on it.
A related problem is political honesty. Do we lay this problem on the political table and accept it as an intractable fact of life? Behind closed doors senior bureaucrats may be doing just that, but should the issue be brought into the open? If so then many members of the chattering classes will be outraged and deny that it exists or they will tout it as another government failing, implying as ever that it doesn't have to be a government failing if only enough money is spent on it.
4 comments:
I'm not sure that there is all that much of a problem. The military might reject the least intelligent 10% of the population because they can't do any useful tasks, but I would have thought that different standards apply in civilian life. You're not expecting them to handle weapons, for a start. There are probably some roles and jobs that some of them can do in civilian life which means that they don't have to be supported.
They will generate a disproportionate number of casualties, however; people who fail and need help. These failures would previously have been looked after by family, church, and neighbours. Perhaps today the sacred status awarded to the Welfare State is some kind of displaced realisation that the alternatives are either starvation, or eugenics. The left used to be quite keen on eugenics, didn't they?
People do live in ivory towers.
I'd like to see the Excel spreadsheet which worked out the benefits versus the costs!
Sam - I'm not sure how big the problem is, but 10% sounds formidable to me if it has to be dealt with officially and inefficiently, but yes I think the left still has a soft spot for eugenics.
James - but some come down to earth.
Scrobs - it's probably hidden away in the bowels of bureaucracy.
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