When Charles Murray published Coming Apart: the State of White America: 1960-2010 he argued that the upper 25 percent of white America was doin’ fine, with great careers and merger marriages. But the bottom 25 percent was not doing well, at all, where the men don’t work much and the women don’t marry much.
Why “white” America? Because in the 1990s Murray published The Bell Curve (along with Richard Herrnstein) in which he argued that human “cognitive ability” was going to be key in the coming decades, and blacks, in particular, were going to get hammered because the “bell curve”of black IQ was about one standard deviation lower than the white bell curve. In response, the cognitive elite hammered Murray — because Herrstein had died — for being racist. How dare he!
Jews and East Asians are about one half of a standard deviation above average whites on the IQ bell curve. So I suggest that IQ is a measure of how long you and your ancestors have been literate.
Whatever the price of tea in China, we can say that in the years after The Bell Curve our ruling class has showed no interest in helping the American people develop cognitive skills. They have de-emphasized tests like the SAT and ACT and have de-emphasized math and science in schools, because racism.
Just guessing here, but I’d say that the problem of cognitive skills in the computer age hasn’t gone away.
Meanwhile, our ruling class has reduced its political interest to climate change and systemic racism. This means that economic policy has narrowed to the Net Zero goals of eliminating fossil fuels and the anti-racist goal of benefiting “historically oppressed” peoples.
As I understand it, right now housing has never been so unaffordable, and the default rate on automobile loans has never been higher. “Houston, We Have a Problem.”
Stein’s Law: “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.”
A year ago, I posted a Tweet:
GDP up 77.5%
Real GDP up 31%
S&P up 300%
NASDAQ up 714%
Personal Income up 79%
Consumer Prices up 41%
Home Prices up 100%
I don’t know how you look at that, but I say that everything is fine for someone like me that retired in 2010 and kept my IRA in SPY and QQQ. But not so good for someone trying to start a family and buy a house.
The point is that unless you are in the green energy business or the DEI business, the government is doing nothing to help you. So it is hardly surprising that Gallup records the GOP with the biggest lead ever on “keeping the country prosperous.”
Yes, but how do you do that? The two approaches to economic prosperity that have captured attention in the last century have been, first, the Keynesian idea that you stimulate the economic with government spending to boost the economy, and, second, the supply-side argument that you reduce tax-rates to boost the economy.
(I’m biased, of course, but I say that Keynesian economics was a bust in the 1930s, and supply-side economics was a winner in the 1980s.)
OK, so what do we do? Here’s my economic Ten Point Plan.
Kill climate change programs. Tomorrow, if not sooner.
Convert Social Security, unemployment, IRAs, 401k’s, HSAs, you name it, into individual tax protected Wealth Accounts to which everyone must contribute at least 10 percent of their wages. People can make tax protected withdrawals for home purchase, unemployment, business startup, education.
Close down public K-12 schools and replace with home schools and KIPP academies. And charter schools. But I would start a movement that moms are the best people to run schools. In the neighborhood. And teach women to say of women that aren’t involved in their kids’ education: “I can’t believe that she…”
Turn welfare over to billionaires and anyone else interested.
Revive guilds and lodges — Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks, Eagles, mutual-aid societies.
Privatize health care and turn Medicaid over to billionaires.
Cut government spending down to 10 percent of GDP.
Close down all the regulatory agencies. They are just jobs for liberals.
Shut down the US global empire.
Reduce government employees by 10 percent per year until further notice.
This is not that hard. Almost all government spending is really loot for the supporters. And just like in the olden time when the Romans or the Vikings conquered and looted and plundered, government spending and government regulation impoverishes us all.
Is there a chance in Hell of passing my Ten Point Plan? No. Because geezers like me say: “They’d better not touch my Social Security.” And geezeresses say: “They’d better not touch my Medicare.”