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There is no proven link that education helps people to get out of poverty. 60 years ago in many African countries the average education was higher than, say, in

There is no proven link that education helps people to get out of poverty. 60 years ago in many African countries the average education was higher than, say, in South Korea. Yet it did not help with economic growth at all. What it seems certain is that the level of education is a consequence of country wealth, not a cause of it. I.e a richer country can afford for kinds to stay in education longer. The book "The Tyranny of Experts" by William Easterly shows rather convincingly that it is luck of fairness or even basic respect that makes population poor, not the amount of money or education.

TangoTrotFox 9y ago
I could say that there is no proven link that giving people large amounts of money helps them to get out of poverty and site the fact that ~70% of lottery winners end up broke. Of course my statement is nonsense. Giving people large amounts of money directly and immediately, by definition, gets them out of poverty. The point here is that when something is failed to be utilized it must be considered that the fault lay not with the 'something' but the person or persons who failed. A great example of this is a semi-isolated tribe in South America. They had little to no technology and a number of researchers decided to introduce them to some 'modern' technology. One of these bits of technology was to teach them how to make canoes enabling them to navigate the waters in greater safety and efficiency. And they absolutely understood and were able to make these canoes helping the researchers do just that. Yet for whatever reason, once the researchers left and the canoes began to fall apart instead of maintaining them or building new ones they simply began to use them as drift-wood flotation devices and then eventually as that failed, went back to traversing the waters completely manually. Education is a path to success, but it's up to the individual or collection of individuals to use it.
- shanusmagnus 9y ago
  Fascinating -- any more details of this tribe, or a source for this? Would like to learn more.
  - TangoTrotFox 9y ago
    Phew digging up that name was not easy, but it is definitely worth sharing. The group is called the Pirahã [1]. Phenomenally interesting (and educational) group in so many ways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3
crdoconnor 9y ago
China's education system is also fairly poor, but exactly like South Korea they followed a path of export oriented industrialization. Now, Beltway insiders are fretting that they're too economically successful.

TangoTrotFox 9y ago

I could say that there is no proven link that giving people large amounts of money helps them to get out of poverty and site the fact that ~70% of lottery winners end up broke. Of course my statement is nonsense. Giving people large amounts of money directly and immediately, by definition, gets them out of poverty. The point here is that when something is failed to be utilized it must be considered that the fault lay not with the 'something' but the person or persons who failed. A great example of this is a semi-isolated tribe in South America. They had little to no technology and a number of researchers decided to introduce them to some 'modern' technology. One of these bits of technology was to teach them how to make canoes enabling them to navigate the waters in greater safety and efficiency. And they absolutely understood and were able to make these canoes helping the researchers do just that. Yet for whatever reason, once the researchers left and the canoes began to fall apart instead of maintaining them or building new ones they simply began to use them as drift-wood flotation devices and then eventually as that failed, went back to traversing the waters completely manually. Education is a path to success, but it's up to the individual or collection of individuals to use it.

shanusmagnus 9y ago
Fascinating -- any more details of this tribe, or a source for this? Would like to learn more.
- TangoTrotFox 9y ago
  Phew digging up that name was not easy, but it is definitely worth sharing. The group is called the Pirahã [1]. Phenomenally interesting (and educational) group in so many ways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3%A3

crdoconnor 9y ago

China's education system is also fairly poor, but exactly like South Korea they followed a path of export oriented industrialization. Now, Beltway insiders are fretting that they're too economically successful.