My mom used to say, “I don’t think you could stand on the corner and hand out twenty dollar bills without making people angry.” There are multiple ways of viewing everything, but this isn’t the way I would have seen this development:
Developing countries are rapidly increasing the number and quality of college graduates, generating a sea change in the relative education advantage that advanced countries have enjoyed over literally hundreds of years… “Given recent trends in primary education, the world economy may achieve near universal literacy within a generation,â€? says Gail D. Fosler.
The title of the report, Advanced Economies Losing Lead In Education, just feels wrong. How are we supposed to respond? Are we supposed to work to re-extend our lead? How should we do this? Perhaps launch a “closed education” aimed at denying the developing world access to the educational opportunities we’re creating? We must continue to dominate and exploit them! We’re losing our lead! This talk of development was all well and good until someone screwed up and actually made a difference somewhere…
Good grief, Charlie Brown. How about a report titled, “Thank God!!! 100% of the Developing World to Be Literate by 2035!!!”
Easterly argues that for all the money, theorizing, and research that have been poured into the effort to raise the standard of living in developing areas, little progress has been made because everyone ignores the first principle of economics: people act in response to incentives. If we wish to take education into the developing world, what are the incentives to which we expect potential learners will respond? A fun read, full of great quotes like “The prime suspect for mucking up incentives is government” (217).
When It’s Just Too Simple
Book
4 out of 5
The Elusive Quest for Growth
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262550423/davidwiley-20?creative=327641&camp=14573&link_code=as1
http://rcm-images.amazon.com/images/P/0262550423.01._SCTZZZZZZZ_.jpg
Easterly argues that for all the money, theorizing, and research that have been poured into the effort to raise the standard of living in developing areas, little progress has been made because everyone ignores the first principle of economics: people act in response to incentives. If we wish to take education into the developing world, what are the incentives to which we expect potential learners will respond? A fun read, full of great quotes like “The prime suspect for mucking up incentives is government” (217).
