Race, earnings and intelligence.The publication of The Bell Curve by Charles Murray Charles Murray is the name of several notable people:
In 1991, the average black male college graduate earned $31,000; his white counterpart counterpart n. in the law of contracts, a written paper which is one of several documents which constitute a contract, such as a written offer and a written acceptance. earned $40,000. This gap hasn't narrowed much since 1975. There is an economics theory that explains individual wage and salary income differences. It says a worker's productivity determines his or her pay. If economics were a lab science, we'd test this by observing a worker group, measuring individual productivity and comparing earnings. But in the modern workplace, output depends upon the abilities and efforts of all the workers, making it difficult to measure individual productivity. Economists can gauge productivity indirectly by studying individual characteristics that predict productivity. They believe education, for example, increases productivity. If we compare two individuals in the same occupation and industry with the same work experience, marital status marital status, n the legal standing of a person in regard to his or her marriage state. and number of children, we'd expect the one with more schooling to produce and, therefore, earn more. Most studies find that schooling and work experience explain only part of this gap. So, what are other possible explanations? A theory popular among conservatives is that education and work experience are not effective measures of productivity. There must be other forces we can't observe that are either incidentally or causally caus·al adj. 1. Of, involving, or constituting a cause: a causal relationship between scarcity of goods and higher prices. 2. Indicative of or expressing a cause. n. linked to race. Murray and Hernstein suggest that this is intelligence. The authors argue that IQ scores are race-linked because intelligence is hereditary HEREDITARY. That which is inherited. . Therefore, blacks earn less than whites because they are less intelligent. Their analysis is flawed flaw 1 n. 1. An imperfection, often concealed, that impairs soundness: a flaw in the crystal that caused it to shatter. See Synonyms at blemish. 2. . (For starters, "race" is more a social construct than a biological one.) Economists ask: Do IQ scores measure intelligence, other productivity-related characteristics or something else? Murray and Hernstein claim a consensus exists that IQ tests do measure intelligence, but many psychologists This list includes notable psychologists and contributors to psychology, some of whom may not have thought of themselves primarily as psychologists but are included here because of their important contributions to the discipline. and biologists disagree. The Bell Curve authors also don't acknowledge another explanation for the racial earnings gap: discrimination. Employment tester studies, like one conducted by the Urban Institute, show that (white) employers prefer hiring whites even when blacks present equivalent credentials CREDENTIALS, international law. The instruments which authorize and establish a public minister in his character with the state or prince to whom they are addressed. If the state or prince receive the minister, he can be received only in the quality attributed to him in his credentials. . If we can eliminate employment bias, the race earnings gap will disappear. But The Bell Curve is another attempt to obscure this fact. |
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