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Have IQs gotten lower?

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...2658898710.html

I will admit that my understanding of the motivations of my fellow man can be poor. Generally speaking, the behaviors of people mystify me.

The Democrats have done a good job of convincing the average American that what they are planning (punishing doctors for providing services) is not health care rationing.

I lived in a country with socialized, rationed healthcare.

This is exactly where it begins

What I want to know is... why does no one know that this is what it is? Do they not read the same articles? I know a lot of reasonably intelligent people, who read the news every day who can't wrap their minds around this. Even when I explain what it was like in the system I lived in they still don't buy it. I give several examples of people I knew who were affected by rationing and still... nothing.

Dumb? Willfully ignorant? What am I missing here?

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It has *nothing* to do with intelligence and *everything* to do with philosophy. (In fact, IQ's have been steadily rising over the past 3 decades or so--the commission that does the test has to keep raising the bar in order to keep "average" at 100).

When people think they are doing the right thing according to their accepted moral system, they don't care what it costs or what the consequences are. Altruists believe that it's *good* to suffer for their morality--this is their way of buying admittance to whatever their personal version of utopia or heaven is. And if other people won't volunteer to sacrifice, well, they have to be *made* to do it, so that they, too, can buy admittance to heaven.

It's horrible, it's vicious, and some of the smartest people who have ever existed ascribe to it just as easily as idiots. In fact, the "idiots" are often harder to fool because they are more reality-oriented than the highly-educated "intelligentsia". They have to be, they work every day with things that are they way they are and will not change to anyone's whim. But the "intelligentsia" work with words, which they believe can be changed to suit any spur-of-the-moment wish.

Don't disparage people as dumb. Advocate for a better philosophy.

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Dumb? Willfully ignorant? What am I missing here?

How about confused, intimidated, and intellectually disarmed by the moral arguments made in favor of universal healthcare? People are constantly being beaten over the head by the claim that healthcare is a right to which we are all entitled. Nevertheless, anyone with a basic level of intelligence knows that making something "free" to the end user while also adding tens of millions of people to the system will result in shortages and rationing. The moral argument based on the false morality of altruism is a tough one for most people to overcome.

Hah!, JMS beat me to it.

Edited by gags
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The IQ thing was kind of a joke since I don't really believe in that form of testings validity for practical use.

It can't just be a mistaken philosophy that says health care is a right... that seems seperate entirely from the issue that they can read an unbiased report that describes rationing and if they are told that it is not rationing they believe it. They can read a budget that calls for new taxes and if Obama says "those aren't new taxes they're just fees" they believe they aren't taxes. They can read about proposed VATs, be told that they won't face increased taxes and still believe. B)

In other words... they seem to be completely tuned out of reality.

They read about a thing with a clear definition by any other name.

And then refuse to believe that it is what it is.

I'm not talking about value judgements here.

Even if health care rationing weren't a bad thing one could look at what is proposed and say it is rationing.

But they won't do it.

I think living in a bleeding heart liberal mecca was probably not the best choice....

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It can't just be a mistaken philosophy that says health care is a right... that seems seperate entirely from the issue that they can read an unbiased report that describes rationing and if they are told that it is not rationing they believe it. They can read a budget that calls for new taxes and if Obama says "those aren't new taxes they're just fees" they believe they aren't taxes. They can read about proposed VATs, be told that they won't face increased taxes and still believe.

Still philosophy--epistemology, to be specific. If people think that whims create reality, then things are whatever politicians say they are.

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The IQ thing was kind of a joke since I don't really believe in that form of testings validity for practical use.

It's a bit off-topic, however IQ tests have quite a good validity in many occasions. For instance you may have a look at validity in personnel selection here and see that IQ test are almost the most valid of various methods.

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