Cuture + Computers (Part II)

Achieving societies are societies able to postpone gratification. Self-interest is served immediately, or it takes the longer path to greater achievement. The key to economic prosperity is continuous reform (see posting, “Free Markets Create Wealth”). Reform and prosperity come not from immediate gratification, but from taking care of others, from building a team, from, in Jack Welch’s words, “getting great people” (see posting, “Knocking Bureaucracy”).

Fulfilling the Protestant ethic means buying land, building a business, sending children to college, taking care of the next generation. Confucianism is families working hard to place children in a position to care for their parents. Judaism is a society surviving by providing its children the best opportunities possible. India’s recent rise is attributed to the strength of its families, a tradition that like that of China and Judaism, long ago demonstrated its entrepreneurial spirit in hostile environments abroad.

A culture’s ability to postpone gratification and its reverence for education seem closely linked. And education may be the key to progress. New Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, in his testimony before Congress last week, along with tax cuts otherwise oddly endorsed charter schools and education vouchers as measures to help boost the economy. Perhaps Max Weber's stress on the Protestant work ethic relateed to the fact that in 1900, education was less significant in daily life--only 10% of Americans even went to high school then (now 27% have graduated from college).

It’s possible that what seems to be culture facilitating economic progress is just modernization given a more complicated name. Certainly scholars viewed Confucianism and the Indian caste system as barriers to economic progress. Now Confucian and Hindu emphasis on the family seem to support modernization. Ireland was historically backward, hurt by its traditional Catholic faith. Today, it is one of the most successful economies in Europe. Here then is a common strand: in China, in India, and in Ireland, when the people at last grabbed hold of their destinies (indirectly to be sure in China), parents fulfilled their dreams in part by educating their children. By postponing gratification.