There’s a semi-famous (now deleted) Tweet about “the bottom quintile”, describing how much of modern society is at the mercy of this small % of problematic people.
“The rules you follow in life will be based on the behavior of the bottom quintile, the taxes you pay are to support the bottom quintile, the greatest risks to your life and property will come from the bottom quintile, the dearth of comfortable public spaces is because you have to allow the bottom quintile to be there, our zoning laws are developed for fear of the bottom quintile.”
You can consider the “bottom quintile effect” through a societal lens:
- If most societal problems are created by the bottom quintile, the job of your public education system is not so much to cater for the higher-quintile students, but to “raise the floor” and educate the bottom quintile, so they’ll stay away from trouble.
- Why people are willing to pay a premium to live in a “better neighborhood” is largely to distance themselves and their kids from the bottom quintile.
- It is very resource-heavy to support the bottom quintile (not only because they have the most problems) but because the high-ability people in the bottom quintile tend to ascend, thus leaving the bottom quintile. Resources to help the bottom quintile thus have diminishing returns over time.
Or you can consider the effect through a personal lens: since many guidelines and restrictions are created to account for the bottom quintile, you can sometimes ignore them. Probabilities based on the bottom quintile don’t necessarily apply to top-quintile people.
- The stat that 30% of marriages end in divorce does not mean your marriage has a ⅓ chance of failing, if you’re at all reasonable and put effort into the relationship.
- The rate of learning and progression at public school is built in a way that even the bottom quintile can keep up. A more gifted child - especially with a high-agency and active parent - can easily learn at 10x the pace at home.
- National dietary recommendations are created with the most unhealthy people in mind, so if you’re fit by breaking those recommendations, is that so wrong? (Related post. Related fact: the new 2024 Finnish dietary recommendations would have you eating max 1 egg per day.)
- Recommendations against co-sleeping with a baby are made to avoid negligent or drug-abusing parents from attempting it, so if you do your research and prepare your environment to be safe, you can reconsider that recommendation.
(Obviously, you cannot explain all of society through one concept. Don’t send me snarky emails. I’m aware of the limitations of this idea and underlying elitism, too - please no emails about that either.)