On average, low-educated people stay healthy until their 57th birthday and highly educated people until their 71st year† That’s ‘the gap’. It is not due to a lack of equal opportunities. Once upon a time studying was reserved for the ruling class, a smart working class kid didn’t get a chance, but that was then. In the last seventy years, the clever working-class children have been sifted out; anyone who has it in-house can now follow a higher professional education/university education. Equal opportunities guarantee unequal outcomes, because differences in education and income are now mainly determined by differences in IQ. These differences are largely innate. Smart migrant children are the exception, they are still being screened.
IQ is the result of an IQ test. It measures word comprehension, logical reasoning, spatial awareness, speed of thought and more. There are various IQ tests, but those who score high on one usually score high on the other. The IQ describes only a limited part of a person’s skills; someone with a high IQ may score low on social skills, empathy, and creativity. Despite this, IQ appears to be a powerful predictor of school and university success, job satisfaction and good health. In 1947 the IQ was measured in all 11 year olds in Scotland. By 2015, of children with an IQ in the lowest 10 percent twice as much died as of those in the top 10 percent. A low IQ was mainly associated with more deaths from cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, dementia or accidents. Other studies also show that the health gap is largely due to a gap in IQ.
Genes that determine IQ
Differences in IQ are largely hereditary. This is evident from research on twins and adopted children. Adoption in a ‘privileged’ family increases the IQ of a child of low-educated parents by about five points† That’s not much compared to the difference of such a fifteen to twenty points between the low and highly educated. The genes of the biological parents keep their influence even after adoption. We know more and more of those genes that determine IQ. They mainly appear to control brain formation† With a little DNA from the inside of the cheek, it is quite possible to estimate their average in groups of children predict school grades† As more genes are discovered, those predictions become more accurate.
The social gap in education, income and health is therefore partly caused by hereditary differences in IQ† That gap is growing. In the past, a male doctor married a secretary or nurse. They could have a high or low IQ, because women did not study. Now graduates especially get married with each other and their children get high IQ genes from both parents. On the other side of the divide, two people with low IQs get married and both pass on the genes for it to their children.
IQ is not only determined by genes, the environment also has an influence, especially the quality and duration of education. Extending compulsory education by two years raises IQ with five points† We must therefore keep children of less-educated parents in school longer. In her recently published book Education makes the difference Louise Elffers gives a good overview of what can be done to reduce inequality. It’s not all that easy, our education is already cracking at the seams and preschool programs help little† But even with an ideal education system, we cannot ignore the truth that differences in IQ between the lower and higher educated are real and largely unchangeable.
Decent paying job
Anyone who writes about IQ has an agenda and it’s time I put mine on the table. I believe that everyone should have the prospect of a decent paying job and reasonable health, regardless of their IQ and level of education. This means, first of all, that low-skilled workers should receive a higher salary. That is a matter of justice but also of self-interest, because everyone has an interest in a stable society. People with a low education are increasingly ending up in the drain of society and therefore give up. We see the consequences of this in the opposition to corona vaccination but also in the crime of low-educated young people. Even the holiday of the better-off to Bali threatens to fall into the water due to the underpayment of suitcase porters.
The remedy for this is, first of all, better salaries for the low-skilled. Let the government take the lead and business will follow. The government must also protect us against the sickening effects of the market. Make soda and fast food more expensive and make cycling and walking easier. The Scientific Institute of the CDA recently formulated: 28 concrete steps which the government can take over.
Higher taxes and more patronizing. If people stay healthy longer as a result, the choice seems simple to me.