managing the underclass

Update 27 July 2008: I’d been working on this post for about a month, and the very day I published it the Australian newspaper ran a major story covering many of the same topics and ideas, although it fails to acknowledge the role of intelligence in the social problems it discusses.

What is western society to do with the surplus humans that form the underclass? This conservative US article predicts living standards in first world countries will fall in the future based on the premise that western nations waste too much money supporting surplus humans in or from the third world.

I think we do the same thing domestically by constructing social security systems that encourage the underclass to breed and thus exacerbate the problems they cause. Recent social tragedies in Australia have drawn attention to the almost third world plight of some supposedly first world citizens, where children have been neglected, abused and starved to death.

Members of the white bogan underclass breed continuously because they are too stupid to implement family planning strategies to maximise their own economic wellbeing or the future of their children. Their culture refutes any acceptance of personal responsibility.

Similarly, some remote Aboriginal communities are fundamentally dysfunctional. The vain attempt to preserve indigenous culture through the politics of self-determination and the rejection of nineteenth century paternalism has resulted in family breakdown, child abuse and the literal collapse of civilisation. This is another culture that does not want to take responsibility for its own behaviour.

In China the one child policy and female infanticide have caused a huge gender imbalance, with far too many young men and too few women. A generation of surplus young men, many from backward rural areas with few skills and fewer prospects, are predicted to cause significant social problems in the future. This problem has been caused by the gender prejudices of that culture.

The underclass, regardless of racial or ethnic origins, are incapable of functioning in the modern world. They simply do not have the intelligence to learn, to benefit from education, or to develop the literacy and numeracy essential for functional behaviour, such as maintaining employment and financial independence. The cause of their problems is the anti-intellectual irrational values and beliefs that are representative of their culture.

There is no point in blaming the underclass for their situation, as some conservatives do. Equally, there is no point in vacilating behind incoherent politically correct waffle and claiming that the plight of the underclass is all about a lack of opportunity or disenfranchisement.

Some people simply don’t have the intellectual capacity for rational thought. We should abandon “the mistaken belief that chronic offenders could be reformed” because they do not have the ability to moderate their own behaviour or to make rational decisions (which often involve delaying personal gratification).

Living in filth and squalor despite receiving welfare income is a clear sign of a basic inability to function in society. It may also be a strong indicator of mental illness. People with serious mental illnesses and low intelligence (which is in itself a serious disability) cannot be expected to have the capacity to rationally manage their lives. It is terrible that services for mentally ill people are negligible, but not everyone who is incapable of rational self interest is mentally ill.

A new paternalism is necessary. The underclass needs to be managed like animals for the benefit of society as a whole. People do not have the right to have 12 children and create an ever greater burden on society.

More voices are emerging the challenge the pathetic discourse of political correctness and the consequent policy decisions that cost taxpayers millions of dollars in welfare payments.

One UK writer argues that:

The old working class exists, but it is on its last legs, and the underclass that has replaced it is on the rise – angry, desperate, broke and broken, culturally and morally barren, passing on their poor, empty lives to their children and grandchildren. No wonder they drink to oblivion – wouldn’t you?

The fact of the matter is that the binge-drinking problem is largely an underclass problem. Teen pregnancies are largely an underclass problem. Teenage crime is largely an underclass problem. Child neglect – we live in a country where a little girl allegedly starved to death in her own home last week – is largely an underclass problem. Our collective problems are largely underclass problems.

Could somebody not just come out and say it, before another generation floats away to its doom on a sea of alcopops? The underclass was made, not born. Nobody asks to live in poverty, with no hope, no ambitions, no possibility of betterment, and the belief that the most fun you can have is to drink yourself into early cirrhosis.

The underclass management strategy should include pregnancy prevention. In Australia, it has been suggested that:

Calls for more government action, while well meaning, do not take into consideration the complex interactions between government provided welfare, families and the community.

It is reported that the Adelaide mother was entitled to $57,000 annually in welfare payments, with a further $19,000 expected along with her twins.

The government currently pays welfare to women that have children, and it is unquestionable that some of these women will have children in order to receive welfare. To argue otherwise is living in a foo’s paradise.

This, however, is only where the problems begin. The welfare state facilitates and financially enables dysfunctional lifestyles that would once have been unthinkable, and without the intervention of the welfare state, would not be possible.

The underclass are being offered welfare incentives to keep breeding. As the UK writer notes, the underclass has been created by social policy and the welfare state. We need to reverse the incentives so that the underclass is encouraged to stop breeding, such as by mandating the use of the Implanon contraceptive implant (already given to teenage girls in indigenous communities) for women in urban communities.

One example already operating in the US is Project Prevention, which pays junkie women to be implanted with Implanon to prevent the creation of unwanted children. The use of Implanon on underage indigenous girls in Australia has been controversial because it may be used to identify girls as potential victims of abuse. This would not be the case for adults like the Canberra and Adelaide breeders.

We need to acknowledge that unplanned and unwanted pregnancies are a reality because “quite a large proportion of our society, [is] perhaps not bright enough to take responsibility for arranging effective contraception“. We need to take away the money that encourages bogan breeding. Another suggestion is to licence breeding, but that will never work because it requires the kind of rational behaviour that bogans are incapable of.

The obvious signal to remove children from harmful situation is if they are not attending school. How can a lack of school attendance be considered a “low level” problem? Damaged children become damaged adults who are incapable of breaking the pattern of dysfunction:

Mental health problems often have their origin in abuse or neglect in childhood, as do addictions – including hazardous drinking, poor school attendance and crime. All of these increase the risk of an adult life of poverty, failed relationships, homelessness and isolation.

It is becoming increasingly evident that the real cause of the underclass is the increasing complexity of society. Some people still live in stone age conditions, while some fly in space and communicate with each other across the world through computers. The biological evolution driving increases in intelligence also drives this evolution in social complexity.

The western, democratic, postindustrial postmodern information economy is becoming a meritocracy measured by intelligence. Soon different communities of people may no longer be classed as belonging to the same species due to their social, intellectual and technological differences.

Intelligent productive people (the cognitive elite) pay those with the lowest intelligence through the welfare system to keep out of trouble and out of sight. Now that the underclass is growing and becoming a bigger and economically unsustainable problem, it can no longer be easily ignored and must be dealt with.

It is no wonder that the upper middle class wants to separate itself from the underclass to live within gated communities and apartment buildings with secure entrances. The future consequence for all of us who see our taxes being wasted on an increasing underclass is a lower standard of living. Rational self interest will not allow me to accept this.

I have no interest in maintaining the polite social taboo about discussing intelligence or its social consequences. I’m sick of having to pay so much for the social infrastructure (welfare, courts, law enforcement) that struggles to contain the underclass problem. Trying to socialise and educate the underclass is a waste of time. We need to stop them from breeding.

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