Garett Jones > Quotes

“On average, nations with test scores in the bottom 10 percent worldwide are only about one-eighth as rich and productive as nations with scores in the top 10 percent.”
― Garett Jones, Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

“Since politicians and bureaucrats can rarely sign real contracts, the best way to prove you'll do something later is to do it now”
― Garett Jones

“Irrational political beliefs are free, consequenceless, and economic theory predicts that people will buy a lot of stuff that’s free.”
― Garett Jones, Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

“Drawing on an expansive array of research from psychology, economics, management, and political science, Jones argues that intelligence and cognitive skill are significantly more important on a national level than on an individual one because they have "positive spillovers." On average, people who do better on standardized tests are more patient, more cooperative, and have better memories. As a result, these qualities—and others necessary to take on the complexity of a modern economy—become more prevalent in a society as national test scores rise. What's more, when we are surrounded by slightly more patient, informed, and cooperative neighbors we take on these qualities a bit more ourselves. In other words, the worker bees in every nation create a "hive mind" with a power all its own.”
― Garett Jones, Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

“government impatience spurs the private sector to look for quick money, money that’s easy to hide from the tax collector. Government impatience spurs the private sector to behave impatiently.”
― Garett Jones, Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

“When you’re rich enough to screen out all the possible costs of diversity, all that’s left are the cases where our diversity is our strength.”
― Garett Jones, The Culture Transplant: How Migrants Make the Economies They Move To a Lot Like the Ones They Left

“People with higher test scores tend to hold more pro-market attitudes and are more likely to see their way through a mass of complicated, ambiguous facts to the core insight. But are they more likely to actually vote? Are they more likely to actually influence policy by showing up on election day? Or instead are they more likely to come to the insight of economist Gordon Tullock, who stopped voting once he learned that he was more likely to die in an accident on the way to the voting booth than he was to change the outcome of the election?”
― Garett Jones, Hive Mind: How Your Nation's IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

“Personally, I’d love to see a study of whether higher-IQ teams are better at Telephone than teams with average IQ.”
― Garett Jones, Hive Mind: How Your Nation’s IQ Matters So Much More Than Your Own

“For instance, consider whether economies tend to grow faster or slower within a few years of becoming a democracy. Is there pro-democracy evidence as clear as Sen’s on famines? No. Overall, countries that make a transition to democracy don’t grow any faster (or slower) compared to beforehand. So that kind of clear test isn’t helping the case that democracy is causing prosperity.”
― Garett Jones, 10% Less Democracy: Why You Should Trust Elites a Little More and the Masses a Little Less