Economic Thought

Thorstein Veblen - via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Ford - Library of Congress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting that Thorstein Veblen and Henry Ford shared a birthday, July 30, though born in different  years, six years apart. One wrote about the differences between the labor and leisure classes and the other personified this in his accumulation of industry and wealth. Henry Ford established and promoted one of the greatest symbols of, "conspicuous consumption", the automobile. Even though cars eventually came within everyone's capacity to own, early on it was only the wealthy who had them. Just a small Economic Thought for the day.

World Population Day

This year's theme focuses on adolescent pregnancy and how to encourage young girls to stay in school and start families only when they're ready. Studies have shown that the key to a country's economic strength lies in educating girls.

The Best Educated Big Cities in the US

City Human Capital Index for the 30 largest cities in the US

 

It's no surprise that greater education correlates positively with greater income, but this has recently been corroborated in a study by UCLA economist William Yu. Yu has created a “city human capital index” or CHCI which measures educational levels of various Census designated geographic areas. Of the 30 major cities in the US, Washington, DC comes out on top as the highest educated city. Boston is second, and surprisingly New York is in the middle of the range. Unfortunately, the study also relates that the South suffers from a dearth of education with very few southern cities making the top 30. The full study will be released in a few days, but the WP and InTheCapital have explored some of the details in advance.