All socioeconomic problems (+/- 3 %) are caused by too little patience....too much impulsivity.
All reproductive success problems among the upper classes are caused by too much patience...too little impulsivity.
Is it that simple?
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It's pretty simple when you state it that way.
One thing that I think is important, though I can't prove it, is:
American adults were overwhelmingly shaped in public schools. Home schooling was rare and Catholic schooling (the only common sort of private schooling, I think) isn't super-common.
Typical schools tend to amplify the differences between those children with low impulse control and those with future time orientation (FTO). The latter more commonly understand the ethics behind a rule, so they aren't as likely to bully even when they can get away with it. The former do everything they can get away with, and when they are punished it doesn't sting as much because the ethics mean nothing to them, the acceptance of adults is of marginal importance, they consider class time to be as boring as detention, etc.
PERHAPS: modern schools are so deeply leftist that the most productive, intelligent, and ethical children end up with a sort of Stockholm syndrome, some sort of strange inferiority complex. They may make more money than the dim, impulsive bullies. So they vote and lobby to tax themselves. They may get married, but their FTO prevents them from boldly making children. A lot of them don't get married.
And the opposite happens with the lower classes. These aren't people who understand either the traditional/Christian or modern/Fabian concepts of charity. To them, charity is just a sign of weakness. "Benefits" only embolden and coarsen them. They never stop and think about how the affluent got that way, because they don't think that deeply. I remember helping dimmer kids out when I was 11 years old; they never tried to learn, they just took answers from me and wrote them down, never thanking me. They figured it was their birthright to get answers from me, because they were cool and I was a dork.
Grownups behave the same way. "It's not cool to have a normal job; you punish the fools by taking their tax money and making babies." There is something distinctly BDSM about pretty wealthy people giving everything of value to the slob caste and begging for more.
Olave,
1. Welcome to the blog
2. I've been a separation-of-school-and state kinda guy since Marshall Fritz was running things in the early 90s. As an educator and a homeschooler, I find it very easy to implicate the schools in LOTS of the problems.
Issue: Roughly, the schools we get are the schools that we want. Rich districts get schools that prepare kids for college. Poor districts get schools that keep kids off the streets. And by and large, those are the goals that the parents have.
Problem: One-size fits all. AFAICT, lower-class parents would rather a school that operated by lower-class rules (step out of line, and we'll beat you until you cry, you 15yo hoodlum)...but they're not permitted to by the upper class rules that are foisted on everyone.
I'm not convinced by the Stockholm syndrome...rather I'm inclined to think that it's FAR more tribal than that. You have 2 tribes in modern political life...and the primary choice is "which tribe are you in"...NOT what should we do with the poor. The tribe associated with rich smarties in this country is the anti-god, pro-state tribe.
It helps to stop believing that individual people (who aren't 3+ sigma) have beliefs for ANY reasons besides:
(a) it benefits them,
which usually means
(b) it helps them fit in with their tribe
Lots of good thoughts there. I just can't figure out why the upper class / coastal / progressive types are so dead-set on wiping themselves out.
I'll have to ruminate on it a little more.
getting back to the original post: if the reproductive success problems among the upper classes are caused by too much patience...too little impulsivity. Then has patience among the upper classes increased recently? I'd say no. It's a change in incentives, combined with the ability to act on those incentives.
Drpat,
You are in agreement with aretae. Your "change in incentives" is his modernity.
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