Science and Policy: A look at Equality

The September issue of Commentary magazine has as its lead article: The Inequality Taboo by Charles Murray. For those who don't remember, Charles Murray co-authored The Bell Curve about the qualities of groups of people based on race or gender, for example. He had been quiet for a long time about these issues and this is his first time speaking out on these issues since his book.

The entire article is worth reading and it's available as I linked to it above. Here's a taste of how he explains group features and whether we should focus so much on these as the government makes policy:

"Suppose that a pill exists that, if all women took it, would give them exactly the same mean and variance on every dimension of human functioning as men—including all the ways in which women now surpass men. How many women would want all women to take it? Or suppose that the pill, taken by all blacks, would give them exactly the same mean and variance on every dimension of human functioning as whites—including all the ways in which blacks now surpass whites. How many blacks would want all blacks to take it? To ask such questions is to answer them: hardly anybody. Few want to trade off the unique virtues of their own group for the advantages that another group may enjoy."

Why did he write this article? Here's part of his answer:

"When the outcomes that these policies are supposed to produce fail to occur, with one group falling short, the fault for the discrepancy has been assigned to society. It continues to be assumed that better programs, better regulations, or the right court decisions can make the differences go away. That assumption is also wrong."

Read this article; you'll be very happy you did.