Aibu to think we're entering a new "dark age"?

[Sorrelle]

Over-reliance on social media, living in our little bubbles; economic nationalism rather than globalisation; growing inequality; growth of illiberal democracies... Anyone agree?

Yy Ego. I remember being horrified that dh and I together are in the top centile of earnings for families with two children. We live in a small flat and haven't been on holiday for years. It's horrifying when you see how a few people at the top pulls 'average' up.

Why are working class people more disadvantaged than middle class? If Student A is middle class, has a student loan, gets a degree and a good job and Student B is working class, has a student loan and gets the same degree and job they will be paying the same amount of repayments, so their background makes no difference

Look at the degrees working class people take, they are often vocational. University is a means to an end, a way of getting a job as a teacher, lawyer or nurse.

Not many working class people on history of art degrees or 'classics'.

You can't afford your degree to be just something interesting it has to lead somewhere.

Many healthcare jobs from nursing to paramedics were not degree courses in the 1980s (OK a few but most nurses didn't do a degree)

Sorry to be a bore, but Upon rereading the IQ portion of this thread, I was struck by the thought that the concept of half being above an average or mean point and half being below seems to be so offensive to the feelings and sensibilities of some posters that they refuse to accept the actual definition of a very straightforward term used in statistics -- which is pretty much set in stone and is very simple to understand.

You've just misunderstood us, haven't you?

If IQ were defined differently, it'd be fine to talk about 50% of people scoring below average, because it'd make sense. But, because IQ is scored in a certain way, you can't really do that.

It is way off topic - but, I agree, almond, it's nice to have a discussion about stats that stays reasonably polite!

I agree that we over reliant on tech'. It seems we can't sit for a few seconds or even walk down the street without referring to our mobile devices. Drives me crackers actually. I'm trying not to take mine with me now, especially on weekends!

Did the op ever contribute?!

Not sure! D'you reckon we been 'played' as they say in 'The Wire'???

Still can't why this disadvantages working class people in particular. If they get poorly paid jobs they just don't pay the loan back in its entirety. Same as for a middle class graduate.

I think we've been in one for a while. At least since 2001 but possibly far longer. We've been treated like dispensable cannon fodder for a long time - the GWOT just 'codified' it.

Egoquisum

The point of the 'Capital' in the Hunger Fames is certainly not that they are blithely living in their own little bubble unaware of the real world.

They are living in their own little bubble perfectly aware that the harsh realities of the systematic abuse they've created in the districts outside it is propping up that bubble and stopping it from bursting.

Take from that what you will but I think it's fair to say that Suzanne Collins is fond of allegory.

Abraid, a PP very clearly explained to you why working class uni students are disadvantaged by the current system. It is a massive amount of debt to take on and clearly that is likely to put poorer people off as they don't generally have the safety net middle class students tend to have. My 90s debt is bad enough, and has caused me problems, and I got the maximum maintenance grant available at the time, and there were no tuition fees, and the threshold for repaying is much higher.

Re. the Flynn effect (time to get my Psychology book out again, apparently I just can't put it down despite my exam being done and dusted ):

'An interesting study of note here was reported by Teasdale and Owen (2008) who noted that, as has been observed in other western cultures, there had been an increase in IQ scores in Denmark since the 1950s. However, in their study of Danish males they noted that there was a small increase in scores across a range of tests between 1988 and 1998, this being the last time such an increase had been noted, and that between 1998 and 2004 there was a drop in performance on these range of tests equivalent to about 1.5 IQ points, and that on two of the four tests used the levels were down to below that of the 1988 scores.'

So perhaps our IQs are indeed dropping again?