RT Book
T1 Inequality by design: cracking the bell curve myth
T2 Princeton paperbacks
A2 Fischer, Claude S. 1948-
LA English
PP Princeton, NJ
PB Princeton Univ. Press
YR 1996
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/194247988
AB As debate rages over the widening and destructive gap between the rich and the rest of Americans, Claude Fischer and his colleagues present a comprehensive new treatment of inequality in America. They challenge arguments that expanding inequality is the natural, perhaps necessary, accompaniment of economic growth. They refute the claims of the incendiary bestseller The Bell Curve (1994) through a clear, rigorous re-analysis of the very data its authors, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, used to contend that inherited differences in intelligence explain inequality. Inequality by Design offers a powerful alternative explanation, stressing that economic fortune depends more on social circumstances than on IQ, which is itself a product of society. More critical yet, patterns of inequality must be explained by looking beyond the attributes of individuals to the structure of society. Social policies set the "rules of the game" within which individual abilities and efforts matter
AB And recent policies have, on the whole, widened the gap between the rich and the rest of Americans since the 1970s
AB Not only does the wealth of individuals' parents shape their chances for a good life, so do national policies ranging from labor laws to investments in education to tax deductions. The authors explore the ways that America - the most economically unequal society in the industrialized world - unevenly distributes rewards through regulation of the market, taxes, and government spending. It attacks the myth that inequality fosters economic growth, that reducing economic inequality requires enormous welfare expenditures, and that there is little we can do to alter the extent of inequality. It also attacks the injurious myth of innate racial inequality, presenting powerful evidence that racial differences in achievement are the consequences, not the causes, of social inequality
AB By refusing to blame inequality on an unchangeable human nature and an inexorable market - an excuse that leads to resignation and passivity - Inequality by Design shows how we can advance policies that widen opportunity for all
AB As debate rages over the widening and destructive gap between the rich and the rest of Americans, Claude Fischer and his colleagues present a comprehensive new treatment of inequality in America. They challenge arguments that expanding inequality is the natural, perhaps necessary, accompaniment of economic growth. They refute the claims of the incendiary bestseller The Bell Curve (1994) through a clear, rigorous re-analysis of the very data its authors, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, used to contend that inherited differences in intelligence explain inequality. Inequality by Design offers a powerful alternative explanation, stressing that economic fortune depends more on social circumstances than on IQ, which is itself a product of society. More critical yet, patterns of inequality must be explained by looking beyond the attributes of individuals to the structure of society. Social policies set the "rules of the game" within which individual abilities and efforts matter
AB And recent policies have, on the whole, widened the gap between the rich and the rest of Americans since the 1970s
AB Not only does the wealth of individuals' parents shape their chances for a good life, so do national policies ranging from labor laws to investments in education to tax deductions. The authors explore the ways that America - the most economically unequal society in the industrialized world - unevenly distributes rewards through regulation of the market, taxes, and government spending. It attacks the myth that inequality fosters economic growth, that reducing economic inequality requires enormous welfare expenditures, and that there is little we can do to alter the extent of inequality. It also attacks the injurious myth of innate racial inequality, presenting powerful evidence that racial differences in achievement are the consequences, not the causes, of social inequality
AB By refusing to blame inequality on an unchangeable human nature and an inexorable market - an excuse that leads to resignation and passivity - Inequality by Design shows how we can advance policies that widen opportunity for all
NO Bibliogr. S. 277 - 302
CN BF431
SN 0691028982
SN 0691028990
K1 Herrnstein, Richard J : Bell curve
K1 Nature and nurture
K1 Intelligence levels : United States
K1 Intelligence levels : Social aspects : United States
K1 Educational psychology
K1 Intellect
K1 Sozioökonomische Bildungschance
K1 Intelligenz (psychologisch)
K1 Leistungsniveau
K1 Schulleistung
K1 Soziale Ungleichheit
K1 Ethnische und nationale Unterschiede
K1 Soziokultureller Vergleich
K1 Bildungspolitik
K1 Intelligenztest
K1 Pädagogische Psychologie
K1 Schulforschung
K1 Schüler und Schülerinnen
K1 Soziale Umwelt
K1 Soziales System
K1 Einkommensverteilung
K1 Bildungschance
K1 Bildungsforschung
K1 Bildungssoziologie
K1 Familiensoziologie
K1 Usa
K1 USA : Intelligenz : Intelligenzquotient
K1 Ungleichheit : Intelligenzdiagnostik