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Comment by temphn | Hacker News Reader

6) The educational level (or mean cognitive ability) of the US population has been decreasing just as the cognitive thresholds for gainful employment are steadily increasing. You'd say education if you were on the left and might say cognition if you were on the right.

Someone should plot the time series of BLS occupational statistics, with the minimum required education/IQ levels for each job. On the one hand the IQ profile of the US is trending down. On the other hand, anecdotally job growth tends to be focused on those areas requiring high IQ, like programming. Squaring this circle may mean job growth outside the US.

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Environment plays a huge role in the development and maintenance of IQ. And socioeconomic status (SES) can greatly affect the conduciveness of a child's environment to fostering IQ development. Accordingly, since more and more children are being born into low-SES households, it isn't surprising to see average IQ scores in decline.

Consider the following tidbit from the most recent national census: 50% of all babies born in the country right now are born into low-SES households (as defined as households dependent on governmental assistance, like food stamps). Forty-one percent of all babies born in the country are born to unmarried mothers (single-mother households being highly correlated with low SES).

The conclusion isn't that our generations are getting dumber, per se; it's that our generations are being born into poorer and poorer households. And the deck is pretty significantly stacked against someone born into a low-SES household.

Now, there's debate about causality in all of this, i.e., whether the existing population is actually getting poorer, or whether the poor are simply outbreeding the well-off. Based on census data, it seems to be a little of column A, and perhaps a bit more of column B. Either way, the younger generations are starting off on worse footing. And that leads to lower IQ scores and decreased future prospects.

Have to say something. Using statistics to quantify a change in IQ based SES is similar to using statistics to show that an algae bloom is due to increased sunlight only. The drop in IQ has more to do with limiting educational opportunities and community supports for struggling families. Yes, our government has let us down in many ways but it is a generational problem of trying to give the people what they need to survive and be successful without the people really understanding what it truly is, to be successful. Mass media promotes an idea of success that is NOT successful in terms of true human success and the average Joe buys into such fallacies. It should never be a handout but a hand up to a better life, short term, look for solutions, educate, change, move on. If that is not possible for a "family" to do this, it needs to be discovered specifically why, not just surface appearances of what may truly be stopping appropriate growth and development of the human being. It is never one thing only, there is always a system involved and the system is broken somewhere along the way preventing it from working entirely successfully. Who said it takes a VIllage? It really does, a whole village of people concentrated on the development of each individual within that village to ultimate success and success does not equal money or power unless it is a means to an end for change and a better future for all. 1. topnotch prenatal care for all 2. topnotch education and services from birth, identifying potential problems in development right from the start and providing supports to prevent issues 3. Proper diet and nutrition education and availability, across the board 4. Fewer identifiers of low SES on a daily basis for growing children to prevent the stigma from pushing them into poor decision making. 5. A village for every child

It is all out there, you have to fight for it sometimes and sometimes you are treated with suspicion just because you want to fight for it, but in the end, it will always be worth it, for posterity's sake.

"the IQ profile of the US is trending down."

citation needed.

Last time I looked, the flynn effect was still in full swing.

Citation needed? There's only one response to that:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=recent+flynn+effect

Right at the top is this excerpt from wikipedia: "Recent research suggests that the Flynn effect may have ended in at least a few developed nations"

This from neuroanthropology.net: "A long-term rise and recent decline in intelligence test performance"

and so on

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My disagreement was with the claim that "the Flynn Effect is in full swing". The recent small downwards trend you acknowledge is incompatible with that claim. From everything I've read on the topic, the Flynn Effect ended in the US about 20 years ago. FWIW, I administer Raven's APM tests in the course of my work.

Please speak for yourself about trolling wikipedia. I simply responded to the lazy GP's need for a citation with a google search of a relevant phrase. That said, the very article from which you quoted a sub-section has this in the header:

"Recent research suggests that the Flynn effect may have ended in at least a few developed nations"

This claim carries a citation on wp.

Your link at the bottom about educational attainment is completely irrelevant to the discussion. Intelligence and formal schooling are two different things.

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