Kevin Drum over at Mother Jones thinks he has found the solution to crime, the IQ gap, and life outcomes: Lead. Let's hope he's right, because that will be a lot easier to fix than genetic load. However, Jim Manzi over at The Corner sees some holes in the theory.
OK, Mother Jones ≠ Scientific Journal, nor does NRO, and Kevin Drum ≠ scientist, though Jim Manzi probably does, if you count Mathematics and such. But still. It's interesting.
HT: hbd* chick
2 comments:
I'm dubious. The lead (and other toxin) rates map onto high population densities, where you also find different cultures. hdb chick has a plot of murder rates in different tribes (including WWII). The rates vary over a couple orders of magnitude, and gasoline doesn't enter the picture at all for most of the conflicts. So we're either looking at hbd or (IMHO more likely) culture. Trying to parse out the effects of toxins from the potentially huge background variations of culture seems futile.
We've been getting lead out or immediate environment for a long time. (I remember reading that lead pipes may--may--have led to the fall of the Roman Empire.) No lead in paint. No lead in gasoline.
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