The Smartest Generation, Part 2

Through the Flynn Effect and the American public school system – the most rigorous and difficult one in the world – today’s generation, also known as the millennials, is smarter than any preceding generation, and this is another reason to be optimistic that stocks and Bay Area real estate will keep going up, why America will always be number one in free market capitalism and why the debt binge is still sustainable, because through American exceptionalism, foreigners cannot get enough of our low-yielding debt and are flocking to our institutions of higher learning and technology companies in droves, and as much as the left wishes, to no avail, that America would dumb-down and lose its global economic influence, resistance is futile to the the post-2008 national religion that celebrates wealth creation and intellect, also known as smartism.

To be a STEM major in debt, to be rich, to be authentic, to be a professional stock trader, to be in the adult industry, to be an economist, to be a professor of science, and to be smart is the ticket to success, adulation, and ingratiation into the ‘system’ as a part of the ‘process’ and the national ‘debate’ in today’s society. To be a part of the debate, process, and system means your opinions matters, versus the hundreds of millions whose thoughts and experiences go unacknowledged. For example, if you are a STEM major in debt, you can share your debt hardships online and suddenly, by virtue of being smart and in debt, you become an important person to those in the community – to maybe even having your story picked up by the ‘new media’ such as Forbes, The Wall St. Journal, Salon and Slate. In contrast, the liberal ‘old media’ such as the New York Times, whose readership consists mostly of old liberals, doesn’t care much about STEM debt. This will only work for degrees of substantive value. Posting a story about going into debt to major in something useless such as Race Relations in the NBA or NAACP Studies will only be met with ridicule, and deservedly so. In this context, perhaps one can make the argument that a more pressing problem in society today is the sexual objectification of retired pornstars by men looking at their breasts instead of their face during conversation than the historically low labor force participation because, after all, many of the unemployed brought it upon themselves by being in jobs that didn’t create enough economic value, having obsolete skills, or not getting a STEM degree.

In the smartist era, economic value is created in ways not so obvious – from uploading pictures on Facebook, to tweeting, clicking Google ads, playing Candy Crush or the Kim Kardashian game, watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and taking selfies with Snapchat. The Kim Kardashian game made $1.6 million in five days. This is economic value being created. Even being unemployed helps the economy by giving the fed an excuse to never raise rates, boosting profit margins, and having more time to engage in economically productive social media consumption. This could explain why the Ebola scare is good for the economy by making people less inclined to go out and instead stay home to post on Facebook or watch movies on Netflix.

But, also, perhaps, we need more potholes because public infrastructure is a liberal waste of money. According to experts, we need to make home ownership harder, because unqualified poor people caused the sub-prime problem, and furthermore, renting is good for the economy by forcing people to spend. What this huge post-2008 economic boom has shown is that you can spend and print your way to recovery – without any hyperinflation. When the top 1% reap most of the economic returns, some of the prosperity trickles down, provided one is patient enough to wait his or her turn. The lesson all Americans can lean from the 2008 financial problem is to be patient for the recovery and to create economic value. For better or worse, many people were fired because their jobs weren’t creating value – both for their employer and the economy in general. Admittedly, I’ll concede that in trickle down economics the ‘trickling down’ may take longer than originally planned, but the economic value of tax cuts, free market capitalism, QE and low interest rates cannot be overstated, and the rich deserve more for the economic value they create.

Ultimately, the smartist era is about creating value, whether it’s getting a STEM degree, posting on Reddit, or being smart. Those who create value are rewarded in varying ways – from being an important person to rising stock and real estate prices. To bring this back to the discussion of millennials, they are the smartest generation ever and, despite the difficult economy, will carry the torch of home ownership and consumer spending after their parents die. Furthermore, they have superior critical thinking skills, and consequently, are more receptive to HBD than earlier generations, and this bodes well for the economy and America’s future, because if we can have a generation of smarter people, we can loosen the grip the left has had on the body politic. While the left is winning the culture war, they are losing ground politically and economically, especially among the the millennials after the falling out with Obama and the rise of internet libertarianism. By in large, the smartest generation rejects the nostrums of the old democratic and republican party line of their baby boomer parents and instead are embracing neo liberalism, neo conservatism, pragmatism, sciencism and other ideologies that are grounded less in political correctness and vacuous platitudes and more in didacticism and empirical evidence. From the Oracle of Omaha to the billionaire next door that owns a sports team, we, including the millennials, empathize with the rich instead of vilifying them, because they have many of the same problems as ordinary Americans have, except maybe money problems. I think this is progress.