Joe C.

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• December 6, 2009, on Universities and Economic Growth:

  The ideas encapsulated by "eventually most of the English were somehow descended from people with a psychological propensity to save and invest rather than leap at instant gratification" are the weakest part of Clark's argument. Unless there is a large body of genetic and psychological literature I am unaware of, this theory of economic eugenics is almost pure speculation. To the extent that it is used to "explain" the success of one country as compared to another it also carries very unpleasant racial overtones--- that the story of England's rise to power is a story of a genetically superior group of savers and investors vanquishing genetically inferior groups of savages who can think only of the present moment. If we take this seriously, we do not need to worry about educational systems if we want to preserve the standing of the US relative to other countries; we just need to adjust social conditions so that rich people have more surviving children than poor people. (Perhaps the c...