Too Many Americans Live in a Mental Fog

When it comes to economics, we spend most of our time thinking about better ways to organize human activity. This is the main purpose of debates about minimum wage, universal health care, deregulation, taxes and other common economic policies. But it’s worth remembering that the condition of the people matters a lot as well -- the best policies in the world won’t guarantee prosperity if the bulk of citizens are sick, illiterate or innumerate.

In the 20th century, universal public education and public health measures became standard policy in every developed country. That increased the capabilities of the workforce -- what economists call human capital -- immensely. Factory workers could read instructions, office workers could calculate revenues and costs, and people throughout society were mostly freed from the scourge of diseases like polio, whooping cough and tuberculosis. This was a huge win for developed nations, and for human quality of life.