The idea that the distribution of income is becoming more skewed due to cognitive differences has long been known and agreed to by analysts all across the political spectrum. Making it a matter of IQ differences, and linking this form of intelligence so strongly to genetic inheritance, is a dubious proposition which actually takes us backwards. It increases what individuals do not control and decreases what we expect people to achieve. More ominously, it steer us straight into the leftist folderol that sees group development as the proper way to view social science and social policy. Mr. West has good reason to be embarrassed about Murray's Bell Curve essay in The New Republic. Given Charles's previous work of such outstanding quality, it is a tragedy. But it is incorrect for Mr. West to dismiss the article as a marketing error. Give The Bell Curve's author credit for honestly putting forth what his IQ analysis means for public policy: an intellectual cul-de-sac of racial IQs and "conservative multiculturalism."
Arresting Question
In the December 1994 issue, Nick Gillespie claims that one-third of all boys in this country will be arrested before 18 ("Arrested Development"). That's pretty difficult to believe! Could you please provide some support for this statistic?
Michael Freed
Inglewood, CA
Mr. Gillespie replies: The one-third figure in fact applies to urban areas. "Somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of all boys growing up in urban areas in the United States will be arrested before their eighteenth birthday," writes Peter W. Greenwood in the recently published collection, Crime. The figure for all boys, according to a 1986 National Academy of Sciences study, is 27 percent.
CORRECTION
In the April editorial, "Artistic Licenses," the author of a New Republic article supporting PBS was misindentified. The article was by Robert Wright.<</p>
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